THE TAMIL TIGERS CLAIM THAT PALALI AIRBASE HAS BEEN BOMBED IS DENIED BY THE AIR FORCE

By Walter Jayawardhana

The Sri Lanka Air Force denied the statement of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) that the Tamil Tiger air planes bombed the Palai Air Strip by using their propeller driven two light winged air craft and called it a complete fabrication.

But military sources said by artillery fire six soldiers died at a place called Myladdi , away from Palali air strip.

Rasiah Ilantheriyan , the LTTE military spokesman claimed their aircraft bombed the Sri Lanka government run Northern air strip causing heavy damages.

The Sri Lanka air force spokesman Group Captain Ajantha de Silva said “nothing like that ever happened” but some artillery fire was aimed at the airport from outside but that attack failed to cause any damage.

The pro-LTTE website Tamil Net said “heavy damage” was done to the airstrip .The Media Center for National Security reiterated the statement of the Air Force by saying , "We totally deny the air strike, but there were some artillery rounds fired ... They also did not cause any damage."

The rebels built military airstrips and smuggled in about five propeller driven aircraft into the country taking advantage of the lax security measures imposed by the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration immediately after he signed a Norway led peace accord.

Same sources said a suspected LTTE aircraft was spotted in the skies of Thondamannar , but it did not do any bombing and disappeared in the skies when air defense systems were activated and readied.