Image via Wikipedia
By R. Bhagwan Singh | Colombo, Feb. 20: Two LTTE planes late on Friday raided Colombo and dropped bombs on the Internal Revenue Department building inside the fort area of Slave Island, which houses most of the defence and other government establishments across Galle Face beach. While the air defence systems, which include anti-aircraft guns manned by special units, shot down one of the LTTE planes at the IRD building,
Sri Lanka Air Force aircraft destroyed the second one close to Katunayake air base on the city’s outskirts, the military spokesman, Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, told this newspaper. Witnesses reported hearing ack-ack fire in Colombo.
There was some confusion initially with police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekara saying one plane was shot down at Katunayake while the other one had headed towards Jaffna in the north with Air Force aircraft in pursuit. It later turned out that both planes were shot down in and around Colombo soon after the raid began at around 9.15 pm. The Sri Lanka Air Force spokesman, Wing Comm-ander J. Nanayakkara, said the forces recovered a rebel’s body from the wreckage of the Tiger plane shot down near Katunayake air base.
Dr H. Weerasinghe, director of Colombo National Hospital, said 42 injured persons had been admitted to the hospital and two of them were in serious condition. The injured included two Air Force personnel. Agency reports said two people had been killed in the bombing.
There was panic in Colombo as radar detected the two Tiger planes heading towards the capital. The lights were switched off by the central electricity system and air defence measures activated, an officer said. Slave Island is very near most of the top hotels, including the Taj Samudra and Hilton. The military said the IRD building suffered "slight damage".
The Tiger raid comes as an embarrassment to the government, which had claimed it had destroyed all the rebel runways and crippled its tiny air wing, believed to have two to three small planes.
Source: The Asian Age
.::. All my articles can be view here: MELTED HEARTS .::.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=100dd395-5d1e-4b3f-b487-accec8f25536)
Sri Lanka Air Force aircraft destroyed the second one close to Katunayake air base on the city’s outskirts, the military spokesman, Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, told this newspaper. Witnesses reported hearing ack-ack fire in Colombo.
There was some confusion initially with police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekara saying one plane was shot down at Katunayake while the other one had headed towards Jaffna in the north with Air Force aircraft in pursuit. It later turned out that both planes were shot down in and around Colombo soon after the raid began at around 9.15 pm. The Sri Lanka Air Force spokesman, Wing Comm-ander J. Nanayakkara, said the forces recovered a rebel’s body from the wreckage of the Tiger plane shot down near Katunayake air base.
Dr H. Weerasinghe, director of Colombo National Hospital, said 42 injured persons had been admitted to the hospital and two of them were in serious condition. The injured included two Air Force personnel. Agency reports said two people had been killed in the bombing.
There was panic in Colombo as radar detected the two Tiger planes heading towards the capital. The lights were switched off by the central electricity system and air defence measures activated, an officer said. Slave Island is very near most of the top hotels, including the Taj Samudra and Hilton. The military said the IRD building suffered "slight damage".
The Tiger raid comes as an embarrassment to the government, which had claimed it had destroyed all the rebel runways and crippled its tiny air wing, believed to have two to three small planes.
Source: The Asian Age
.::. All my articles can be view here: MELTED HEARTS .::.
No comments:
Post a Comment