COLOMBO (IPS) - By successfully carrying out air raids on military and economic targets in and around the capital, separatist rebels have demonstrated a new capacity to wage 'all-out' war in their fight to carve out a separate state for the Tamil ethnic minority in Sri Lanka.
But questions are being asked as to how the fledgling Tamileelam Air Force (TAF), the air wing of the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has been able to acquire planes and train pilots despite the relatively small size of the land mass available in the the Tamil-dominated north and east of the strife-torn island.
By all estimates the TAF is puny and may consist of no more than five propeller-driven Zlin Z-142, Czech-made planes that seem to have been smuggled in as completely knocked down (CKD) kits and assembled locally. But given the anti-terrorist atmosphere of the post 9/11 world, putting the TAF together and actually carrying out bombing raids is a feat that has startled intelligence specialists.
