- Title: SRI LANKA: TAMIL TIGERS STAGE PREDAWN ATTACK ON COUNTRY'S INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
- Date: 24th July 2001
- Summary: COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (JULY 24, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV: HELICOPTER 0.04 2. GV/LV: SMOKE COMING OUT OF AIRPORT TARMAC (2 SHOTS) 0.15 3. LV: PLANE PARKED ON TARMAC/ SMOKE NEAR THE PLANE 0.21 4. LV: POLICE INSIDE AIRPORT COMPOUND 0.30 5. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Sinhalese) SUNTHERA KUMARI, EYEWITNESS, SAYING: "The sounds wer
- Embargoed: 8th August 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: COLOMBO, SRI LANKA
- Country: Sri Lanka
- Reuters ID: LVAEWSNH9I9I3D4RMK8AG9838YLP
- Story Text: A major predawn attack by Tamil Tiger rebels have
closed Sri Lanka's only international airport, leaving
aircraft burning on the tarmac.
Huge clouds of smoke could be seen after the attack on
Tuesday (July 24), which began at a nearby military base and
came on the anniversary of 1983 anti-Tamil riots that are
considered to mark the start of Sri Lanka's brutal ethnic war.
Military officials said eight Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) cadres had been killed, including one suicide
bomber who blew himself up about four hours after the attack
began about 4 a.m. (2200 GMT).
Airport officials said four civilian Airbus planes -- two
A340s, an A330 and a fourth unidentified Airbus -- were
damaged and that eight military planes could also be seen
burning at the nearby airbase.
Bandaranaike International Airport and the airbase are both
about 30 km (20 miles) north of Colombo. The airport was
closed and a curfew was declared in the immediate area.
Fighting continued with air force helicopters flying
overhead and elite anti-terrorism commandos fanning out around
the area, which houses the military and civilian airports side
by side.
There was another explosion around 0230 GMT, setting
alight the fourth Airbus, a military spokesman said.
Witnesses by the airport said they were awoken by massive
explosions.
"The sounds were so loud a lot of the girls were afraid to
get out of bed," said Sunethra Kumari, a factory worker whose
dormitory is on the edge of the airport. "We saw several
fireballs and heard a lot of shots and saw something like
missiles."
Passengers heading to the airport for early-morning
flights reported seeing the attack before being turned back by
officials.
Four Israeli-built K'fir fighter jets, a combat helicopter
and three small trainer aircraft burned at the military base.
SriLankan Airlines chief executive officer Peter Hill told
Reuters two of the airline's planes -- which were empty at the
time -- were damaged in the attack.
He said all inbound flights would be redirected, adding
"our main concern is passengers and crew at the moment".
SriLankan said its UL679 flight from Sydney had been
diverted to Madras in India and UL506 from London was diverted
to Dubai.
It was not known which airlines owned the other two
civilian aircraft that were damaged.
It was also not known when the civilian airport -- the
country's only air link with the outside world -- would
reopen.
Security at the airbase and the airport is normally very
tight, with multiple roadblocks.
Images of burning planes could be disastrous for Sri
Lanka's tourism industry, already hit hard by 18 years of
ethnic fighting as the LTTE battle for a separate state in the
north and east.
A fledgling peace process has been sidelined for several
months, with the government refusing a Tiger demand to lift a
ban on the group before any direct peace talks can start.
The LTTE has not attacked outside the north or east in the
more than eight months since a Norwegian peace envoy met Tamil
Tiger officials.
It was the first time the military airbase had been
attacked, although the LTTE has carried out several attacks on
the international airport in the past.
In 1986, a bomb exploded on an Air Lanka plane at Colombo
airport, killing 16 people. The state carrier is now called
SriLankan Airlines.
The July 24, 1983 anti-Tamil riots, in which at least 400
people were killed, broke out after the killing of 13 majority
Sinhalese soldiers by Tamil rebels in the north. That
bloodshed is widely regarded as the start of the war.
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