INDIAN DAILY PIONEER SAYS IF UNCHECKED AIR TIGERS COULD DESTROY PLACES IN INDIA FURTHER THAN 200 MILES AND INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING

By Walter Jayawardhana

Appealing to India and the international community to take serious note of the nascent air wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) the Indian daily of New Delhi, The Pioneer said if left unchecked the terrorists will be able to inflict more severe damage than the current range of 200 to 300 nautical miles and threaten more sites within India and International shipping.

The May 9 dated editorial of the newspaper said with its suspected connections with Al Qaeda and Taliban, “ There are good grounds to believe in terrorism's network of mutual assistance, with the LTTE serving as a role model for some of these outlawed organizations.”

The editorial entitled, We can’t ignore Air Tigers, warned that the “LTTE's air force is an anomalous development that can emerge as a threat just about anywhere

The following is the full text of the editorial :

“In suggesting that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's air wing of light aircraft poses a threat to India 's nuclear installations, Sri Lanka 's Foreign Secretary has only stated a grim verity, the failure to take cognisance of which could have disastrous consequences. While the existence of 'Air Tigers' has given a new dimension to Tamil separatism in Sri Lanka, it would not be alarmist to agree that a new threat has arisen to strategic sites in southern India and it is not one that should be taken lightly. Air Tigers, whose existence - postulated for years - has been clearly revealed this March, appear to possess a small fleet of an unknown number of aircraft modified for military purposes.

This makes the LTTE the only terrorist organisation to possess air power. Over the course of the last year, Air Tigers have evidently been growing, if not in resources, then certainly in daring. While it was in August 2006 that there were first reports of an unidentified aircraft that flew over a Sri Lankan military base, the first significant Air Tigers attack came in March this year, when their aircraft penetrated the defences of Sri Lanka's Katunayake Air Force base, killing and wounding security personnel. More audacious was the bombing of the two fuel storage depots near Colombo on the day of the World Cup final. The Tigers have vowed that more air raids will follow in an escalating conflict. Sri Lanka is once again caught in a vortex of ethnic violence although the 2002 truce is officially in place.

”What is disquieting for India and the international community, amid these developments, is that air power has added a dangerous strategic and tactical flexibility to the LTTE's depredations. This would not be so troubling had the LTTE not long been suspected of having links with other designated terrorist organisations, including Al Qaeda and Taliban: There may even be links with Pakistan 's terrorist training schools. There are good grounds to believe in terrorism's network of mutual assistance, with the LTTE serving as a role model for some of these outlawed organisations.

What convolutions the war against terror will take in the future cannot be predicted with certainty, but the LTTE's air force is an anomalous development that can emerge as a threat just about anywhere. India is in special danger given its proximity to Sri Lanka and its history of past involvement in the ongoing conflict. In its nascent stage, the Air Tigers, with their allegedly propeller-driven planes that have a range of 200-300 nautical miles, are in a position to threaten sites within India as well as international shipping. In the future, if left unchecked, they will be in a position to inflict more severe damage at greater range, perhaps at the behest of other forces. It is for India and the international community to take note and act appropriately.”