by Melani Manel Perera

Rebels of the LTTE struck overnight with air attacks. The two targets: in the north, the military camp of Thallady, near Mannar; and in the south, at the Kelani-Tissa plant in the suburbs of Colombo.

Colombo (AsiaNews) - Yesterday evening, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) carried out two aerial bombing attacks. The first, which took place at about 10:22 p.m., was aimed at a military camp of Thallady in Mannar, in the north of Sri Lanka. The second attack struck an electricity plant in the suburbs of Colombo, the capital of the country.

The lights in the port and the city were turned off as a precaution. The blackout, dictated by the state of maximum alert, lasted about an hour. No one died in the attack, and there were just a few minor injuries, but there was great fear, especially among the population of in the suburbs of the capital. Social activist Sugala Kumari tells AsiaNews about the attack. "At that moment, our thoughts went out to the population living in the war zone. If we were afraid of the sound of a bombing that lasted just a few minutes, how fearful must they be who are living this horrible situation in the north, 24 hours a day?"

The Tamil Tiger attack on the military camp of Thallady is a matter of dispute. According to government sources, there were no deaths, and few injuries. But anonymous sources in the security forces, cited by the Sri Lanka Guardian, say that there are dead and seriously injured soldiers.

Before this attack, the Tigers had struck from the sky on other occasions, most recently on September 9. The air force of the LTTE is based on five Zlin-143 planes, made in the Czech Republic. The tourism aircraft were brought to the island piece by piece, then reassembled and modified to be able to carry bombs.

The clash between rebels and government forces has gone on for decades, and has claimed thousands of victims. The hypothesis of a political solution to the conflict, through talks between the parties in contention, seems to have failed. President Rajapaksha has decided on a frontal assault, in spite of the fact that the first victims of the war have been the inhabitants in the north of the country. The people in the area of the fighting suffer from severe poverty, and are forced to seek shelter in the refugee camps.

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