Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) carried out a bombing sortie on SLAF's main military base at Katunayake at 12.45AM today. The target of the attack is suspected to be 5th jet Squadron and 10th fighter squadron hangars located in the airbase. No fighter aircraft were damaged but 3 SLAF personnel were killed and 17 others received injuries.
Following the attack a lot of false propaganda has hit the web. Tamilnet has quoted their military spokesman saying ' aircraft with air to surface capability' attacked KAB. However DefenceNet learns that either motorized hang gliders or light aircraft (without combat capability) were used in a manual bombing run.
Meanwhile, BBC had initially reported that the Katunayake international airport came under attack. This is entirely false the the airport was not damaged nor a target of the attack.
SLAF's radar system indicated an unidentified aircraft 40 minutes before the attack took place. Whether the attackers returned to LTTE territory or whether they paradropped to a nearby area and hid the gliders (if any were used) is not yet clear.
Related Articles:
LTTE planning to attack MiG27 hangar
Await more updates...
Tamilnet has released photos which are supposed to be of the attack:
ReplyDeleteGet them from here if you cant access tamilnet.
ttp://rapidshare.com/files/22807258/Tamilnet.zip.html
This shows one thing. this mission's aim is propaganda and to win back the hearts of Eelam diaspora.
LTTE has never immediately released photos of a successful attack before.
I hope the fuckers are bombed into oblivion.
And it should now be easy for GoSL to acquire more military equipment on the backdrop of this attack.
If the SLAF noticed this UIAC on radar why couldn't they do anything?
ReplyDeleteHey Hey Things happen. Improtant is should not happen agian. Bring every body's mind together with great power one Team, Only one vission against LTTE Sri Lankan Terrorist.
ReplyDeleteWe never forget September 11, 2001 USA Attack
Please come forward with yound dynamic great power agaist LTTE.
ReplyDeleteWe are powerfull enough to defeat them on the spot.
their should be only one target against LTTE. We have to work hard and give them full damage now onwards.
President should wake-up fist then Command well with dynamic greate power to protect our motherland and His life too.
"The LTTE terrorists carried our a similar predawn attack at the Katunayake air base, on 24 July 2001, which set heights to the Al-Qaeda's terrorist air attack at World Trade Centre buildings on 11th September, 2001 in the United States of America"
ReplyDeleteMr. Ranil will tell you now "big war ongoing & we will bring SAMAYA with help of LTTE to kill our forces like 2002.
This gentlimen is the real LTTE Supporter and no dout about.
Thank god our fighter aircraft are safe. When I heard about the attack I feared the worst. The SLAF was warned about a possible attack on its fighter aircraft and gun ships. Yet nothing was done to prepare for this attack. We are very fortunate the attack failed to destroy our aircraft. Ok so now we definitely have a new threat from the LTTE air arm. What should the SLAF do about it.
ReplyDeleteThe LTTE will probably only attack at night, fully aware of the fact that none of our aircraft can operate at night. What we need are anti-aircraft guns to defend out airbases and major military installations. And we need to get a few light aircraft which have intercept radars and are capable of operating at night. They can be rigged with gun pods and used to intercept the LTTE aircraft. We need to take this threat seriously. The Tigers have given us a nasty surprise, be it an expected one. We need to make sure the LTTE Airwing remains nothing more than a minor threat.
It is quite suspicious the way an light weight air craft comes from terrorist controlled area to colombo unnoticably. Any way Air force claimed several times that they have distroyed a runaway located at some place.
ReplyDeleteAny way it is higly probable that LTTE might repeat all the previous attacks using this strategy, Which includes
1. Colombo, Trinco Harbours
2. Oil refinaries and stores(Oruwala ...)
So it is very wise to have protection for air raids on those locations.
Please protect our Country for our Kids. We should come only one target against LTTE Terrorist Activity.
ReplyDelete"Thanks Indunil great idea"
Why still no action to Tamilnet, NGO Support to LTTE & UNP Who support to LTTE??????
Mangal and Sripathi were helped to distroy our Air force at Katunayake telling that Mig 27 Propaganda story.
Wake-up, Wake-up All Sri Lankans. Now time to start think about your country.
We should come with great power with full force against LTTE with one Target.
JVP Should help this matter to forces because they have kind of dynamic power at all.
Please do not give us thousand Excuses. Everything Happen. But we have to re estabish our strength again.
ReplyDeletePresident should be very powerfull and should come a decision with great powerfull pratical idea.
He is doing well and should do big roll here at all.
Strong Leadership is very important to us. Our Histry 2500 years were shown so many great Leadership to us.
Leadership is very important to Innercet Sri Lankans to live with pease one day.
LEADERSHIP SHOULD BE POWERFULL
TOP POSSITION SHALL BE POWERFULLY COMMANT TO SRI LANKANS
Interesting tamilnet doesn't show their "aircraft" taking off with the bombs strapped onto it. Or even on an actual runaway for that matter. I agree Shamil it could be fake propaganda pics just trying to boost the confidence of their cadres. They are getting their ass whopped in the East and really need something like this
ReplyDeleteBut whatever they used, they did bomb our main military base and that is good points them. Its shocking that some flimsy shit like this was allowed to fly over our main military base. I mean come on we've got to have had some sort of Anti-aircraft weapons. 40mins warning seems unlikely, but even if they had a 5 min warning they should have been able to something about it.
Forget protecting installations, if they did use a light aircraft from vanni, it'll be a lot better to just bomb the hell out of anything they could use as a air strip.
Anyway now is seriously time to seriously reconsider this bs ceasefire and start bombing the fuck out of them. We haven't touched their stuff in kilinochchi yet but now should be a good time to start. They are so used to running their "administration" now most of their infrastructure should be easy targets. And the sooner those SLMM and other Norwegian "peace" bitches are gone the better.
I live about 3-4 km distance from the airport. I waked up after the first bomb blast and open the door and come out. Then I heard the second bomb. Then the sound of machine guns and some other heavy weapons. I went to an open space and was watching at the airport. Then 3 lights were flying adjacent to each other. I thought they are mortars or shells or para. But they were disappeared in the air without any sound. They are red color and like big fireworks. I went in again and check the time. It was 12.43 AM. Once I come back I saw another 2 lights. That time they were yellow color. But far apart from each other. The destination of these lights are very near to my home, i.e 3-4 km from the airport and may be 5-6 km from the air force base. I worried whether they are some false targets fired from the enemy crafts. Because they nigher reached the land nor blasted.
ReplyDeleteSo my question is what are they. Any surface to air weapons used by SLAF or false targets fired from the enemy crafts?
however after 1 AM no sounds were there and military announced in the radio that the incident is under controlled. However until today morning when I listen to the news I was not known that was a air attack.
well apparently fighter jets took off to intercept the aircraft after the attack. But they could not be found.
ReplyDeleteThis is a huge morale booster for the tigers. However this doesn't mean that tigers can bomb Colombo whenever they wish.
You can sneak in one day but you cannot do that everyday. Luckyly, fighter jets are not harmed. As long as we have those in tact we have nothing to fear.
but we need to take down those Zlings ASAP.
Just goes to show that the best technology and best trained personal mean nothing if they can perform. Whoever was in charge should be hung by his balls. With all the prior warnings for this to happen is just not acceptable. Just goes to show that one must never under estimate the enemy. Going by our technology and capability upgrade in the recent past even I got comfortable with our abilities as I stated in a previous string. The only way we can get through this is by making our guys accountable for their failures. Without accountability the best of equipment is not going to get us anywhere. I also think this is a golden opportunity to get out of this pointless CFA. For us to continue what we are doing during a CFA just gives our enemies a louder voice and for us to loose credibility internationally.
ReplyDeleteThe implications from these attacks are that LTTE is capable of sneaking through our security barriers again and again. No matter what kind of tight security, as they are called, is employed, LTTE finds newer methods of surprising us and the GOSL forces.
ReplyDeleteI know there is a brain drain, but there should be at least few top guys in defence forces with enough brains to anticipate such attacks.or is it that they are not listened to?
Any way those air craft can be a variety of things. Soundless gliders, sea or biplanes, light weight copters or maybe rented or hijacked commercial aircraft?
And what happened to the radar and other earlywarning systems? I do not understand much about air defence but common sense tells that we should have been prepared for such a situ, as we are in a war and as LTTE is capable of such attacks.
The interesting queston is, How come the craft were not caught? it is not exactly easy to fly all the way to wanni, as the LTTE claimed after the attack without being noticed by searching SLAF.
Well lot of questions, hopefully answers will emerge with time, and hopefully things will not be too late for the nation and the brave guys who fights for it on behalf of everyone in this country.
Sapumal, you would've seen flares -- either dropped by the Tigers to light up the airbase, or fired by the SLAF to light up the Tigers.
ReplyDeleteThe tiger terrorists using light air crafts obtained after the signing of the so-called ceasefire agreement by Ranil Wickremasinghe, Prime Minister of the then UNP government, to launch the attack on Katunayake Air force Base indicates the depth of the doom pseudo peace process has dragged Sri Lanka states a communiqué issued by the Political Bureau of the JVP.
ReplyDeleteTiger terrorists possessing the ability to launch attacks using light air crafts is a threat to the peaceful existence of the whole society. Hence, the government should take measures to destroy not only the ability of tiger terrorists to use light air crafts as well as tiger terrorism completely states the communiqué.
The communiqué further states that ‘peace merchants’ who make a big hullabaloo when S.L. Air Force launches attacks on camps of tiger terrorists would, as usual, maintain their silence. Without being terrified of the pro-tiger international mafia, which has adorned garments of ‘human rights,’ the government should direct the security forces to destroy the ability of tiger terrorist to launch attacks using light air crafts and all other military capabilities of tiger terrorism add the communiqué.
The Government is determined to face any challenge in its fight against terrorism and appeals to all section of the Sri Lankan society to extend fullest cooperation in this national endeavour. It is the responsibility of all concerned to cast aside petty political differences and stand by the Government to safeguard unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the nation and to eradicate the menace of terrorism.
ReplyDeleteThe best defence is a fine offence.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how hard we try to defend ourselves, sooner or later they'll infiltrate it.
(I am not trying to defend those who were responsible for the attack at KAB. A proper inquiry should be held and if there was a security lapse, those responsible should be punished.)
So, let's learn a lesson from this and go all out and get rid of this menace ASAP.
as someone mentioned, the most worrying factor is not the bombing but as to why the aircraft was not shot down. How could a light plane fly over a high security zone unscathed!
ReplyDeleteI was watching 'Times Now' indian channel and guess who spoke for Sri Lankan defence ministry. It was the crook Lakshman Hulugalle with his ponna voice. Retards like these are a disgrace to the heroes who lay their life on the battlefield.
Anyways Delhi seems to be worried about tiger air power. Maybe the tigers opened a can of whoop ass they cant handle.
The points to ponder are:
ReplyDelete1) Where was the aircraft launched from? The Wanni or elswhere closer to CMB?
2) Were the airstrips in the Wanni (which were destroyed with much publicity) red herrings whilst the actual airstrips were built elswhere?
3) The tamilnet article states that the undisclosed type of aircraft returned to its destination after dropping the bombs. If that is the case then how did it manage to avoid radar detection? Especially when all systems were on red alert and scanning the skies.
4) At this time there is so much speculation as to what exactly happened. In a few days our sleuths should be able to uncover a few more important issues.
The fact is, LTTE exposed its hand with minimal damage to us. They can't pull this off again. This was a final desperate attempt to destroy our fighter jets, and they've failed.
ReplyDeleteEveryone seems to be under the belief that just because the LTTE pulled off this attack, that they would be unable to do so again. That is sheer arrogance on our part to think that. Never under-estimate the ingenuity of the LTTE.
ReplyDeleteThey will find some other way to hit our planes while they are on the ground. The MiGs and Kfirs are a huge threat to the LTTE and they know that without proper air support, our land offensives will be severely hampered. So they will try again, no matter what the cost.
I question the brilliance of keeping all our fighters at Katunayake. Its like putting all our eggs in one basket. Just like how the Americans bunched up all their aircraft in Pearl Harbor to make them easier to defend from sabotage. They put their eggs in one basket and lost all 300+ to the Japanese air attack.
If a couple of bombs fell amongst our fighters, we would loose many of them when they are bunched up. Or a couple of bombs hits the hangar. Its not like the Air Force hangars at Katunayake are hardened concrete hangers.
We need to disperse our air assets. I remember at one time our F-7s were stationed at China Bay Airbase. Why not keep some of the MiG-27s in China Bay and some at Ratmalana Airbase. The Kfirs can be based out of Anuradapura airbase and at Katunayake.
That way if the LTTE do attack again, we won’t loose all our assets in one attack. Besides which, if one base is being attacked from the air, our fighters can be scrambled from another base to intercept the attacking LTTE aircraft. We also need better radar coverage of the whole Island. Its about time we went shopping for more powerful radars or even mobile radars.
I believe the fighter/bombers were pulled back from frontline bases like China Bay and A'pura to in case of attacks by Tiger sabotage teams.
ReplyDeleteI think we should avoid taking the claim that the Tiger aircraft returned to the Wanni as concrete. Obviously the LTTE would like to keep the threat level up by suggesting that the plane/s can be used again. It's more likely that the aircraft ditched at sea and the pilot was picked up or killed himself.
If it was an ultra light, hang glider or something like that, it could even have been launched from the western edge of the Central Highlands. The wind would have been from landward.
Oh, and can we have a little less of that JVP/JHU bollocks and a bit more discussion on the actual subject matter?
ReplyDeleteMaybe the bastards aren't lying about using the aircraft. Form lankapage.com
ReplyDelete"A news agency report quoting a top police source said that the police also has launched an investigation because they were the first to inform the Air Force about the sighting of two unidentified aircrafts an hour before the attack when the rebel crafts passed Ganeshapuram, in Vavuniya district."
But again, contradictory, two aircraft or one? And if it did not try to return to the Vanni area and instead was ditched somewhere, how would the LTTE recover it? I doubt they'll waste their precious aircraft on 1 single attack.
Lot of questions still to be answered. And I hope they'll do a good job with the investigations, like they did after last time's attack on the airport.
And agreed david. I believe the JVP is the only party from the south who endorse giving a separate state to Tamils. Wijeweera first proposed that in a book in the 70s, and they still stand by that.
Wow, this has been a bad day.. and a shocking one too. Never thought that KAB would allow themselves to be caught off guard after the 2001 events, but guess I was wrong. I'm pretty sure that all of us now wants to see some fireworks over Wanni soon.
ReplyDeleteAnd one question, how the hell did the Air Defence systems miss that crap assed plane ? Hopefully next time the air monkeys of LTTE would just be a nice little fireball falling out of the sky.
Jiffy, an ultra light could carry light mortar shells/bombs. These can be fused and dropped. Or satchel charges if they were low enough.
ReplyDeleteAs I said elsewhere, I think it's more likely that the Tiger aircraft headed out to sea after the attack and ditched. The pilot and craft could be picked up from a predetermined GPS coordinate. Or it could've been a suicide mission, in which case, no recovery. Either way, the LTTE would not want the SL military to recover the aircraft as once ID'd, it could be deduced as what sort of base or airstrip was needed to launch it.
As for the JVP, those commie bastards are no better than the LTTE -- except that they can't fight for shit.
David, LST & all
ReplyDeletethe bombs shown on tamilnet looks a lot like 120mm mortar rounds with new welded tail. what do you think?
And What would the out come be if the tigers drop a torpedo from a Zlin or whatever they got?
That would be a blow to the OPV/FMV fleet & maybe even to hydro dams?
And if Para gliders were used, they could be folded up and reused cant they? AD must be beefed up ASAP.
We should also have Birds gassed up, armed & ready to scramble ant air bases around the island.
Your ideas please.
nemesis,
ReplyDeleteI think those bombs were specially built for the planes after carefully assessing wight constraints.
As you said the new development is serious. If one of the OPVs are attacked Navy will face a serious threat from sea tigers.
If a dam is attacked we'll spend many 'power less' nights.
However i believe that destroying the airstrip and base will be much easier than destroying individual craft. As for gliders, army will have to be ever so vigilant.
Of course we cannot discount the possibility that the Tigers may have had some kind of 'inside' help !
ReplyDeleteIt is much easier wiping out LTTE from wanni than planning to avoid their surprise attacks.So I think it is high time that the government and entire population realise this and gear themselves for that evantuality.
ReplyDeleteIf we could devote half the attention we pay for the Cricket then we could easily overcome these challanges.
Indunil,
ReplyDeleteThe logic in keeping the fighter squadrons at KAT are due to the following reasons.
1) Kfirs cannot use any other runway other than KAT due to length limitations. A fully laden Kfir with fuel needs a runway the size of KAT.
2) MiG-27 aircraft on the other hand require a shorter runway but the reason they are not based elswhere is due to security considerations. No longer are aircraft kept at China Bay due to vulnerability -- remember this base came under attack some years back. Also, the establishment feels that KAT provides the best cover and security for our costly air assets -- which incidently has been proven otherwise twice.
I am absolutely disgusted at the incompetence and negligence of the Sri Lankan airforce!! How did you guys let the LTTE aircraft to successfully bomb KAB and then let it fly safely fly back to its base?
ReplyDeleteAfter September 11, why didn't you guys protect our homeland by air attacks,in particular SL military bases?
Watch the insolent animals gloat about it on their Tamilnet website..
Wake up SL airforce! Are all of you guys sleeping?
Torpedoes are no good against dams. Remember the Dam Busters of WW2? Barnes Wallis had to design a special bouncing bomb to do the job. What is more likey is that aircraft could be used to bomb the power houses and turbines below the dam.
ReplyDeleteAlso, approaching a ship in an aircraft is much harder than a land-based target. Far more detectable.
Yeah, I too thought the bombs shown on Tamilnet looked like specially stabilised mortar shells. That's if those pictures are the real thing. Popular theory now seems to indicate that it was indeed a light aircaft and not an ultralight, but we'll have to wait and see.
A Torpedo attack on a warship is one of the most dangerous type of mission for an aircraft to undertake, even more so for a light aircraft. The plane has to fly at an exact height, anywhere from 50 to 100 feet above the ocean, at an exact speed, usually a very low speed, in order to ensure correct delivery of a torpedo. This leaves the aircraft a sitting duck for the anti-aircraft gunners on the ship. At the Battle of Midway (1942), 37 out of 41 American Torpedo aircraft that attacked the Japanese carriers were shot down without scoring a single torpedo hit.
ReplyDeleteUnless done in the dead of night against our OPVs while they are in harbor, there is very little chance the LTTE can attack the OPVs with air dropped torpedoes and succeed. Besides an average lightweight torpedo is around 12.75 inches in diameter, about 8 - 9 feet long and weighs between 200 – 250kgs. Can the LTTE light aircraft carry a weapon of that length and weight?
On a different note, the LTTE claims that they successfully damaged or destroyed some of our planes and that the Air Force had denied access to the Air Base areas to both the media and the SLMM officials. I guess the truth will come out soon enough.
There few things the Defence establishment needs to sort out, in terms of this attack.
ReplyDelete1.how many air crafts(?) were involved
2.nature of these air craft
3.origin and destination
4.why was no warnings heeded?
if the military had indeed tracked them on radar, I’m sure with the telemetry they can asses the speed and type of air craft with that.
there seems to be some key questions that are unanswered, or at least in the public fora.
ie- if there were two air craft , reports said 3 bombs, what was the capability? LTTE pix on Tamil net showed 4 bombs, then if 1 air craft bombed what was the other doing?
what about the rumors of people seeing '2 parachutes" ?
as for the origin and destination, we may also have to consider the fact that these air crafts (?) may have been equipped with a gondola , enabling them to land on water, hence RV with a boat offshore , refuel and retune to base.
Also the shallow waters of NW, especially in Mannar, Aprippu area may have been used to launch the air crafts (?) .
I suggest the inquiries to be 2 fold, one on a comprehensive threat assessment, including the types and nature of the air craft involved etc. and another inquiry on why SLAF didn’t react in time and also what was done following the warnings.
Obviously the SLAF cant do both the inquiries, first one can be done by a joint Military entity but the second MUST be done by the Police, with NO SLAF involvement. Or else we lost the whole idea of the inquiry.
And as for assessment of the actual damage, what ever the area hit by the bombs had to a manned area, given the fact that at 12.45am, to injure 17 and kill 3, this area must have been some what operational sector of the base, close to a flight line, unlike an engineering section where we could not expect activity at night as mentioned in the SLAF statement.
LTTE has most of the time been innovative, so we need our people to think out of the box too!
(David, great that we have you, your comments are highly enlightening! )
The parachutes that were seen were probably from the flares that were either dropped by the Tigers or fired by the SLAF.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFriends, what do you think about the following picture.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tamilnet.com/
img/publish/2007/03/
taf_9_60650_435.jpg
In this picture can you see two light blue spots near to the barbarian leader's collar.
Clearly, this is a fake photograph. They have replaced some other terrorist's figure with an old picture of Pirabaharan. This is how their propaganda wing works.
this is a very serious threat to yur brave men. but what if they hired some forgnien mercenaries or something to do their dirty work. this is a threat to the entire navy as most bases are within range of the irnamadu strip. the pics of the aircraft show it was on some sort of dirt track. the airframe and planels look pretty fimsy but we cannot deny the fact this ever happened. hats of to the three ded airman
ReplyDeleteWe will be soon in the air
ReplyDeleteTorpedoes are no good against dams. sportsbook Remember the Dam Busters of WW2? Barnes Wallis had to design a special bouncing bomb to do the job. What is more likey is that aircraft could be used to bomb the bet nfl power houses and turbines below the dam. Also, approaching a ship in an aircraft is much harder than a land-based target. Far more detectable.Yeah, I too thought the bombs shown on Tamilnet looked like specially stabilised mortar shells. sportsbook That’s if those pictures are the real thing. Popular theory now seems to indicate that it was indeed a light aircaft and not an ultralight, but we’ll have to wait and see. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) carried out a bombing sortie on SLAF's main military base at Katunayake at 12.45AM today. The target of the attack is suspected to be 5th jet Squadron and 10th fighter squadron hangars located in the airbase. No fighter http://www.enterbet.com aircraft were damaged but 3 SLAF personnel were killed and 17 others received injuries.
ReplyDeleteThe Liberation Tigers was a separatist organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976, it waged a violent secessionist campaign that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka.costa rica fishingThis campaign evolved into the Sri Lankan Civil War, which was one of the longest running armed conflicts in Asia until the LTTE was defeated by the Sri Lankan Military in May 2009.
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Sri Lanka Navy lost another one of its ships, this time the logistics vessel formerly known as "Invincible" in another mysterious and sudden underwater demolition-type attack at around 2.15 this morning in Trincomalee.sportsbookThe ship was blasted while at anchor. A similar attack took place several weeks ago when an Ultra Fast Attack Craft of the SLN was sunk killing 10 sailors further north of Trincomalee off the coast of Kokilai Lagoon in the Northeastern coast. The UFAC was thought to have been anchored at the time.This attack, similar to the one today, took place early morning around 2.30am on 22nd March 2008. The Tigers honoured three dead Sea Tigers as the attackers who may have been used as human torpedoes.march madnessOn this occasion the LTTE has named a unit for carrying out the attack. It is called the Kangai Amaran unit, in honour of the slain Deputy Sea Tiger Leader killed by a Special Forces LRRP team in 2001, barely months before the CFA.MV Invincible renamed A-520, took part in an operation to wipe-out three Sea Tiger vessels near Cocos Island in 2007. Analysts believe that Tigers may have targeted A-520 due to its involvement in the Blue Water operation, which caused much pain and damage to the LTTE at the time.www.canadacasino.com
ReplyDeleteThe Tigers, at the height of their power possessed a well-developed militia and carried out many high profile attacks including the assassinations of several high-Costa rica toursranking Sri Lankan and Indian politicians like Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993.
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