Tamil Tiger planes bomb Colombo
Aircraft flown by Tamil separatists dropped two bombs on the outskirts of the Sri Lanka capital early Sunday morning, triggering panic in the city as the military activated its air defence system and fired at the intruders.
One of the bombs hit a gas storage tank at Muthurajarwela, 12 kilometres north of the city, but state television reported that the major storage tanks escaped danger. Two civilians were injured.
The second bomb hit a fuel storage tank area in Kolonnnaa, eight kilometres north of the capital, but no damage was caused, according to the state-controlled national television, Sri Lanka Rupavahini corporation.
The order to activate the air defence system was given after a radar detected a suspicious plane that sparked fear of another Tamil rebel air attack, a military spokesman said. The military fired into the air over vital security and government installations.
Electricity was shut down for more than an hour and a half across the city and suburbs to prevent rebels from identifying targets from the air.
At the time, Sri Lankans were glued to their televisions for the cricket world cup finals between Sri Lanka and Australia, being broadcast live from the Caribbean islands.
Panic and pandemonium broke out when the air defence system started firing.
On Tuesday, Tamil rebels used a light aircraft to bomb a military complex in the north of the country, killing six soldiers and wounding 13. It was the second such air attack by the rebels after the first one in late March.
A military spokesman said that the air defence system was activated in the Colombo port, army headquarters, defence ministry, airport and an oil refinery around 2:30 am Sunday (GMT 2030 Saturday.)
Air force spokesman Group Captain Ajantha Silva confirmed that they had spotted a suspicious aircraft on the radar, but were not in a position to confirm whether it was a rebel aircraft.
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Colombo (Agencies) - Tamil Tiger aircraft bombed key installations in Sri Lanka's capital in retaliation for a military air strike on their territory early Sunday, a rebel spokesman claimed.
Tiger planes targeted two oil storage facilities because they provided fuel to Sri Lankan forces, spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan said.
"We sent two squadrons to target facilities that provide fuel to military aircraft after two Sri Lankan airforce jets bombed a suburb of Kilinochchi (inside rebel-held territory) just past midnight," said the spokesman for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
He said the military had bombed the outskirts of Kilinochchi, 330 kilometres north of the capital, but gave no details of casualties.
However, he said that within an hour of the military air strike, the Tigers scrambled "two squadrons" to attack targets in the capital Colombo and returned to their secret location two hours later.
Authorities in Colombo activated air defences when suspected Tiger planes entered the city's airspace early Sunday.
Troops fired anti-aircraft guns and power was switched off just as residents were watching the country's cricket team lose to Australia in the World Cup in Barbados.
But the guns failed to bring down the guerrilla planes, officials said.
Earlier Saturday, police and security forces sealed off Sri Lanka's capital, searching every vehicle entering and leaving the city amid fears of a Tamil Tiger attack.
There were huge traffic jams at every entry point to Colombo with motorists spending several hours before they could be allowed in. Doctors and other essential services were also stuck at roadblocks.
"This is part of the operations to prevent Tigers getting into the city," a police official said.
Sixteen people were detained for questioning after the authorities searched nearly 10,000 vehicles and checked identity papers of 16,500 people, police said.
Sri Lankan forces have been on high alert since the Tigers, whose drawn-out campaign for an independent state for the island's ethnic Tamil minority has left more than 60,000 people dead, carried out their first aerial strike last month.
Security in the capital was stepped up after defence ministry reports that Tamil Tiger guerrillas had entered the air space of the island's only international airport overnight on Thursday.
The sky over the Katunayake international airport near Colombo -- where government war planes share a runway with civilian jets -- was lit up with anti-aircraft gunfire in response to the incursion by a "suspicious aircraft."
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