Sri Lanka news columns

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by Shamindra Ferdinando Tuesday’s failure to shoot down a single LTTE aircraft despite timely detection by radar has jolted the SLAF into investigating its limitations amidst evidence that the enemy has acquired a capability to neutralise the threat of a heat seeking missile attack. An authoritative source said that Chinese F7s launched from Katunayake air base had failed to zero-in-on the enemy aircraft. "Their (F7s) missile systems failed to ‘lock on with the enemy aircraft," the source said. This would necessitate an overall review of the SLAF’s strategy, the source said. The military asserted that the LTTE could try to exploit the situation. The initial detection had been made north-east of Mannar at 10.18 p.m. by 2D radar installed by the Government of India at the SLAF base at Vavuniya. Thaladdi had come under attack within minutes after the detection, the source said. Both the Indian radar and a Chinese 3D radar station located in the Western Province had detected the ...

යූ. එම්. රුවන් – දික්වැල්ල සමූහ දික්වැල්ල වලස්ගලට ඉහළ අහසේ පෙරේදා (28) රාත‍්‍රි 7.00 ත් 7.30 ත් අතර කාලයේ සැහැල්ලු ගුවන් යානයක් ඉතා පහළින් පියාසර කරන අයුරු ප‍්‍රදේශවාසීන් දැක තිබේ. අඩි 100 ක් 125 ක් අතර උසකින් විදුලි බුබුළු දල්වා ගත් අඩි 04 ක් පමණ දිගින් යුත් යානයක් පියාසර කර තිබෙන බව ප‍්‍රදේශවාසීහු කියති. ප‍්‍රදේශවාසී ඩේවිඩ් ඒකනායක මහතා පැවසුවේ තී‍්‍රරෝද රථයකින් කුලී ගමනක් ගොස් ආපසු එමින් සිටියදී පොල් ගසක් පමණ උසින් යුත් ඉහළ අහසේ විදුලි බුබුලු දල්වා ගත් යානයක් ගමන් ගත් බවයි. එම යානය කඩා වැටෙනු ඇතැයි තමා සිතූ බව ද ඔහු කීය. වෙළෙඳ ව්‍යාපාරිකයකු වන අනුර විජේසිංහ මහතා පැවසුවේ කිසිම ශබ්දයක් නොමැතිව දික්වැල්ල දිසාවේ සිට ඉතාමත් පහළින් විදුලි බුබුලු දල්වාගෙන කුඩා ගුවන් යානයක් බෙලිඅත්ත දිසාවට පියාසර කරමින් එක පාරටම හරවන අයුරු දුටු බවයි. Source

Air Force says LTTE plane was tracked from Mannar to Colombo By Jamila Najmuddin and Senaka de Silva Theories and more theories emerged yesterday as to how the LTTE aircraft which bombed Mannar and then the Kelanitissa power plant, managed to evade being shot down by the Air Force despite flying such a distance. However the Air Force, while admitting the Tiger aircraft had managed to escape, ruled out at least one assumption that the Tiger aircraft involved in the raid in Mannar went undetected until it reached Colombo to take out its target. Defence sources said that two aircraft had taken off from Iranamadu and headed towards Mannar and Colombo. The Army’s 57th Division which operates along the front lines had detected the two aircraft on its radars and informed Colombo. The Air Force had then deployed F-7, MI- 24 and PT6 aircrafts to bring down the Tiger plane. According to Air Force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara a light Mystery LTTE aircraft dropped two bombs on the...

The Air Force operations room was busy from 3.30 a.m. onwards yesterday as it continued to communicate with the Vavuniya Air base because the Vavuniya Security Forces headquarters was subject to an artillery attack between 3.00 a.m. and 3.26 a.m. Vavuniya Air Force base officers who operate the radar had detected two LTTE Zlin 143 aircraft on their screens. They had immediately informed Director Operations Air Marshal Harsha Abeywickrama, who in turn had informed the Commanding Officer of Squadron 5 which comprised F 7 fighter jets. Early yesterday morning, as is normal routine, a young energetic pilot was seated in his F7 fighter jet cockpit. Pilots of F7 fighter jets are on standby, on the instructions of Air Force Commander Air Vice Marshal Roshan Goonetillake. Pilots are allocated for standby duty on a roster basis. On receipt of information, the 5 Squadron Commanding Officer immediately relayed instructions to his pilot in the F7 fighter jet which took off at 3.34 a.m. from the Ka...

Navy’s battle to save the troop carrier Tigers, not the first non-state group to launch air attacks on state The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) carried out its sixth air attack, hitting the Sri Lankan military’s main naval base in the eastern port city of Trincomalee late on Tuesday night. Besides housing the main eastern naval base, Trincomalee is also a major point in the supply route to Jaffna for the military which has no road access to the north from the south. The initial defence ministry reports indicated that there were no casualties following the surprise enemy air attack. But later it admitted that four sailors were injured in the raid. The military spokesman said that both the Sri Lanka Air Force and the naval base had activated their anti-aircraft guns on the ground, and due to this the LTTE aircraft had changed course and dropped their bombs on the dockyard area of the naval base. The next day, Navy added six more figures to the casualty number of the LTTE air ra...

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The LTTE carried out an abortive air raid on the Trincomalee Naval Base around 9 p.m. last night. According to the official Defense Ministry website, the LTTE aircraft had dropped two improvised bombs and fled the area. At the time of going to press, unconfirmed reports cited around 18 injured. Navy Spokesman D.K.P Dassanayake stated that they had received reports of the attack three minutes before the planes were sighted in Trincomalee. “So we attacked it when it approached, but it dropped two bombs and flew away. One did not explode but the other fell near Navy quarters.” The military noted that the LTTE could have been targeting ...