Colombo Oil Tank Storage Air-Raid by Tamil Tigers

Two Tamil Tiger Zlin 143 aircraft carried out air raids early on Sunday morning, hitting their two oil and gas refinery targets before returning safely to their jungle bases on the southern Jaffna Peninsula. The rebels dropped bombs on the two oil facilities near the capital Colombo, slightly damaging one, a Sri Lankan Air Force spokesman said. Three 100lb bombs were dropped. One fell on the Kolonnawa oil facility 5 km (3 miles) north of Colombo. Two others hit the Kerawalapitiya oil storage site, 15 km north of the city. Two injured persons were later treated at Colombo Hospital. At Colombo's international airport passengers were evacuated from their airliners but were later allowed to re-board. At the same time the capital city was blacked out - for the second time in a week. Colombo residents saw anti-aircraft gunfire being directed at aircraft over the facilities. The blackout in the capital city lasted for over two hours. It's believed to be the fourth attack without loss by the LTTE's new Air Force strike capability. The incident was in fact the third air attack in a week. On Friday rebel aircraft bombed an army engineers unit at Myliddy, home to the main military headquarters in the northern Jaffna peninsula, killing six soldiers and wounding 13. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), as the rebels are officially known, want to create an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka for ethnic minority Tamils. A ceasefire agreed in 2002 with the Sinhalese majority government is now seen to be defunct. The Tigers' relatively quiet, slow and low-flying aircraft seem to be able to avoid radar or visual detection at night. The LTTE tactics also give insights into the possibility of identical raids by terrorists anywhere with similarly "stealthy" aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicles based upon readily available radio-control model aircraft techniques.
"These oil installations at Muthurajawela and Kolonnawa are supplying fuel to the security forces, particularly the air force," LTTE spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan told CNN via satellite telephone from the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi in northern Sri Lanka. For an image of the burning Colombo gas storage facility, see tinyurl.com/2pyd6t. Emirates Airlines and Hong Kong's flag carrier Cathay Pacific on Sunday suspended flights indefinitely to Sri Lanka following the rebel air strikes. Related Story