Tamil Tiger Fighters Killed in Sri Lanka, October 2007

geo8x6 · #1 ● 10-14-2009, 04:29 PM

Before dawn on October 22, 2007, a squad of 21 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam commandos attacked the Sri Lanka Air Force base at Anuradhapura. Most belonged to the Black Tigers, the LTTE's suicide-attack unit. About an hour after the ground assault began, two aircraft from the LTTE's Air Tigers bombed the base and returned to LTTE-held territory.

Accounts based on Sri Lankan military reporting said 20 of the 21 attackers were killed. Sri Lankan accounts reported either 10 or 13 service personnel killed and 22 wounded. Four additional crew members died when a responding Bell 212 helicopter gunship was brought down near the base; one account attributed the loss to friendly fire. Two days later, Sri Lanka's prime minister told parliament that as many as eight aircraft had been destroyed and about 10 others damaged. The LTTE also claimed that eight aircraft were destroyed and called the attack Operation Ellaalan.