Army repulses major Tiger attack on military complex
According to intercepted LTTE ground information, the two pilots of the LTTE air craft had continued to communicate with each other on their way back to Kilinochchi. But suddenly, one of the Tiger aircraft had lost contact with the other. Soon one of LTTE pilots had informed the LTTE in Kilinochchi, about losing communication with the other.
The night was darker and cooler than it was the previous days, and the Sri Lankan Army’s elite force -- the Special Forces-- members were on duty at the Security Forces Headquarters Vavuniya and the adjoining Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) base which was equipped with the Indian made radar system named Indra-2 .
The SLAF base and the Vavuniya SF Headquarters are situated side by side and are divided by only a fence and a road that is not opened to the public. Bordering the south of the two bases is the jungle that leads to the Irattaperiyakulam area.
The SF personnel suddenly detected a movement at the outer fence from the Irattaperiyakulam jungle. It was around 3 am in the morning on Tuesday. After monitoring the movement the SF identified it was a group of Black Tigers of the Liberation Tigers Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Although the SF personnel detected the LTTE intrusion they did not retaliate, but waited patiently observing their movements. The Special Forces allowed the Tigers to get through to the Army fence-line and without their knowledge stealthily encircled the rebels. This took several minutes. After the eleven-member Tiger squad had entered the premises the cadres had sent several messages to the LTTE Headquarters. Later it was found that these messages had been sent to commence the operation to attack the military base.
Meanwhile the Black Tiger squad had been unaware that they had been encircled by the SF. Once the order was given, the Special Forces swung into action at the most opportune time. Just as the SF personnel began firing at the Tiger cadres, a barrage of 130mm Artillery shells fell on the Army base as well as on the air force base, creating consternation among the high ranking officials at the base.
The Tigers continued to fire heavy artillery shells in at least three directions from the Omanthai area. Later it was revealed that one location where the Tigers fired artillery was Semamadu area along the Old Kandy road in Omanthai.
Subsequent to the commencement of the ground attack from the south of the Air Base, an unidentified object appeared on the screen of the Indra 2 Radar monitor of the Vavuniya air force base at around 3.26 am and the object continued to move from Mullaitivu in the southern direction. Immediately, a message was sent to the Air Force Headquarters in Colombo, which in turn ordered that the air defence system in Vavuniya and its suburban areas be activated. It was by then clear that the object on the screen of the Indra 2 radar was the LTTE’s Zlin 143 aircraft, which was heading to attack the Vavuniya base in support of the Black Tiger squad on the ground. A second LTTE Aircraft was also spotted five minutes later. Anticipating that the LTTE’s intention was to launch an air attack on the base, orders were given for several Chinese built F-7 interceptors to be airborne to intercept and shoot down the aircraft.
F-7 supersonic jets Vs Zlin 143
Eight minutes after the detection of the first Tiger aircraft, a fleet of super sonic F-7 interceptor jets took off from Sri Lanka Air Force Base Katunayake to engage the enemy aircraft.
Meanwhile, as the two enemy aircraft approached the skies of the Vavuniya base, their aim appeared to be to bomb and destroy the Indra-2 radar system. But the heavy ground fire made it difficult for the two aircraft to target the radar system. Instead th two Tiger aircraft appeared to give up the plan and return. But four bombs weighting some 25 kilos had been dropped from the two light aircraft onto the army complex premises.
The two aircraft were over the skies of Vavuniya for more than six minutes and both had moved away one to fly towards Mullaitivu and the second to the Kilinochchi area. By this time several F-7 aircraft were over the skies of Kilinochchi and Puthukuirrippu. Their main purpose was to bomb the two runways at Iranamadu and Puthukuirrippu. Several sorties were carried out causing heavy damages to those runways, which made it difficult for the LTTE light crafts to land in those two runways.
In the meantime, one F-7 jet was on the tail of one of the Zlin 143 aircraft, which was heading towards Mullaitivu. The pilot had kept contact with the Colombo Operation room and had informed that they were chasing the enemy aircraft.
The F-7 aircraft, which has missiles on board and could fire air-to air, had the opportunity to destroy the enemy aircraft. It locked into the target which was the low flying light aircraft of the LTTE now over the Mulliayaweli area in the Mullaitivu district and was some eight miles south west of Mullaitivu. Once the target was locked by the Jet, and the missile released, the missile would navigate itself to find the targeted object. As the target was just below the jet, the pilot asked permission from Colombo to release the missiles. The green light was given and the F7 released its missiles about 3.50 am. In a few seconds the pilot on board the F-7 had seen the enemy aircraft catch fire and go down into the jungle.
The pilot immediately informed Colombo of this latest success and again flew over to make sure that the target had been clearly hit.
According to intercepted LTTE ground information, the two pilots of the LTTE air craft had continued to communicate with each other on their way back to Kilinochchi. But suddenly, one of the Tiger aircraft had lost contact with the other. Soon one of LTTE pilots had informed the LTTE in Kilinochchi, about losing communication with the other.
Later, ground troops also intercepted some radio communication among the LTTE, asking to check every area to find any debris of their missing aircraft.
The pilot of the F-7 had reported to the Air Force HQ that he had suspicions that the LTTE aircraft had been flown by foreign nationals, due to the manner in which the aircraft had been manoeuvred. The reason being that type of aircraft could not be flown at such a low altitude bypassing the supersonic jets without an experienced pilot.
Intelligence units are attempting to verify this aspect of the attack by the LTTE aircraft.
Ground battle and artillery fire continue
On the ground, the Special Forces were able to kill all eleven members of the Black Tiger unit within an hour from the start of the Tigers’ mission, making the mission a total failure.
Amidst heavy retaliation, two of the Black Tigers who were unable to hold back the military fire blew themselves to death. All the cadres had come disguised in military attire.
Later the troops recovered eleven bodies of LTTE cadres clad in army uniforms -five females and six males from the scene with a stock of military items. Among the items found were one Multi Purpose Machine Gun (MPMG), 2 Rocket Propeller Grenade launchers (RPG) with 4 bombs, 1 grenade launcher (40mm), 6 T-56 assault rifles, 27 hand grenades, 4 radio communication sets, 3 suicide jackets, 14 jackets, 32 pistol rounds, 1 GPS and other accessories for weapons and bombs.
The Tigers, in the meantime continued to target the base using heavy artillery rounds. In retaliation, the army until sunrise responded with 130mm artillery guns set up at the base towards the LTTE firing location. Some of the LTTE shells had fallen on to Thekkawatta village, adjoining the military base.
By 6 am, the area was calm, but again the Tigers started to fire artillery and after a few seconds it had ended. By that time more than 70 artillery rounds had fallen on the military base.
A total of 12 soldiers, a policeman and a civilian were killed during the attack while 15 others suffered injuries and five Air Force personnel also suffered injuries. The military says the deaths and casualties reported were due to the LTTE air bombing and artillery attack.
The military believe that there were several other LTTE cadres who were in the vicinity and had given information to the LTTE in uncleared areas on positioning and aiming the artillery fire. They also believe that the Tiger team had come to the area through Vedivatchulla in Welioya and the Yakawewa, Sithambarapura IDP Camp to Irattaperiyakulam area. On several occasions warnings had been given that the LTTE may use this path to carry out attacks in Vavuniya and its suburbs.
Despite the increasing battlefield losses in the northern war front, the latest raid, similar to the Anuradhapura Air Force base attack, could have been carried out by the Tamil Tigers in order to boost the morale of their cadres and to convince the Tamil Diaspora that its fighting capacity was intact.
However, there was no independent confirmation as to whether the Tiger aircraft was shot down or not, but again it shows the shortcomings on the part of the security forces to respond to LTTE light aircraft using anti-aircraft guns or any other air defence system, set up in and around the Vavuniya base. The two light aircraft of the LTTE were able to come to the ‘no fly zone’ and hover for nearly ten minutes dropping bombs and return to their control area without any harm on seven occasions either due to the fault of the radar system or some other error.
Despite the government claims that they prevented a major attack on the base, the Tigers could have destroyed the entire base in a suicide mission. If the aircraft had crashed into the base it could have caused much more damage than on earlier instances, without allowing air force fighter jets to destroy the returning aircraft.
LTTE says aircraft ‘safely returned home’
In a statement, the LTTE said its aircraft ‘safely returned home’ after causing ‘considerable damage’ to the air and ground assets of the Sri Lanka forces. However, they didn’t give much publicity about their attack this time, like on previous occasions. It said that Black Tigers destroyed the radar installation inside Sri Lankan military's Vanni headquarters. Thereafter, Tamileelam Air Force (TAF) aircrafts and ‘Col. Kittu Artillery ‘formation targeted the Sri Lankan Vanni HQ with the coordination of the Black Tigers, successfully carrying out the operation, the Tigers said, adding that the LTTE aircrafts safely returned to their bases after completing their mission. They announced the names of ten Black Tigers, who took part in the operation. ‘Lt. Col.’ Mathiyazhaki, ‘Major’ Aananthi, ‘Captain’ Kanimathi, ‘Captain’ Muththunakai, ‘Captain’ Arivuththamizh, ‘Lt. Col.’ Vinothan, ‘Major’ Nilakaran, ‘Captain’ Ezhilazhakan, ‘Captain’ Akilan and ‘Captain’ Nimalan.
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