SRI LANKA AIR FORCE SAYS THAT NONE OF ITS FIGHTER AIRCRAFT HAVE BEEN DAMAGED BY THE LTTE AIR ATTACK

By Walter Jayawardhana

The Ministry of Defense sources said that no fighter air planes of the Sri Lanka Air forces have been damaged by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) bomb attack directed from air.
The Sri Lanka Air Force is having a fleet of Israeli made Kfir fighter jets and Russian made Mig27 fighter jets in its war against the LTTE.

The Ministry of Defense said three airmen were killed and 17 were injured in the attack.
The LTTE in an earlier message said they attacked the Katunayaka Air Force base in retaliation of the bombing sorties made by those planes against the LTTE positions.

The Ministry of Defense issued a statement, after a wait of many hours and said, “two bombs were dropped at the SLAF Aeronautical Engineering Wing (AEW) at Katunayake.” It further added, “no damages to fighter craft were caused due the terrorist attack.”

Describing the air craft that came to attack, the Ministry of Defense said, “Speculation are made that the raid was carried out through a light wing air craft similar to hand gliders which could be assembled with minimum labor.”

The statement further said, “all measures were taken to tighten the security in the area, while statements added that no security threat prevailed to the commercial flights and passengers at the Bandaranayke International Airport at Katunayake, which is situated in close proximity to the SLAF base.”

It added, “Defence sources said that The BIA officials said that passenger terminals are functioning normally since 03.30a.m, today (26), after the area was cleared off following successive cordon and search operations. Earlier few commercials flights were diverted to destinations at Chennai and Malay air ports, until the area was cleared with guarantee to passenger safety.”

The LTTE in its statement said they were planning to make many more air attacks. But the Defense Ministry said, “the situation was brought under total control, amidst LTTE attempts to target high profile installation to lift its demoralizing war craze.”