Taken by surprise!

By Amantha Perera

On Monday, July 23, around 9.30pm, the entire area around the Colonel Raj Fernando Stadium that borders the Katunayake Air Force Base was plunged into total darkness. It was the daily power cut imposed as a result of the mismanagement of the power sector and the national economy.

Under cover of darkness, a Mitsubishi Journey bus approached the stadium. A group of travelers numbering between 15 to 20 got out of the bus and assembled in the stadium. The young men in their 20s were singing Sinhala songs, cutting a picture of a group of travelers taking a breather.

While the group was gathering at the south end of the playground, about 200 meters from the parameter of the Air Force Camp, officers and airmen in the camp were getting ready to call it a day, other than those who were billed for night duty.

Gray overcoats

The visitors waited till they felt the area was clear and got down to what they had really come for, to take out the Air Force Base and along with it the country's only International Airport. They changed into gray overcoats and trousers, some just wore the new garments on top of what they were already wearing. They gathered the weapons they had brought with them and approached the camp perimeter through an abandoned paddy field and shrubs. They cut the fence at a location where it was covered with weeds and entered the camp.

From there on, the details get murky. The time of the break-in into the camp has been estimated by defense officials to be between 10 and 10.30 p.m. According to Air Force sources, the intruders had crawled through the undergrowth and the coconut plantation before getting into the base proper.

The attackers had broken into two groups, or possibly more. One approached the area that separates the civilian runway from the military runway, while the others were making their way to close in on the jets and helicopters parked outside the hangars.

The initial attack commenced around 3.15 am on Tuesday morning. "The first burst of firing came from the area between the two runways," a civilian eyewitness told The Sunday Leader, "we were all taken by surprise." He added that the entire area where the firing was taking place was in darkness and that he could only make out the figures by the light of the gunfire. The Tigers possibly commenced the attack under the cover of the noise generated by the Sri Lankan Airlines flight that arrived from Singapore. When the first Air Force jet blew up, the crew of the aircraft were still inside doing a last check before they disembarked. The crew scrambled out. Fortunately, the passengers had left the tarmac by that time.

The intruders had begun firing from the area that separates the two runways to make sure that the Air Force was unable to use heavy weapons on them for fear of damaging the civilian aircraft.

The K8 trainer jets parked in the hangar on the North West side of the Air Force Base were the first to blow up. The hangar lay in the approach path used by some of the attackers. The attackers completely destroyed three K8s. Then, one by one, other aircraft parked outside the hangars went up in flames. They included two Kafirs, one MIG and two helicopters. Several other aircarfts were damaged during the intense attack. The intruders had used explosives, RPGs, mortars, light anti-tank weapons and machines guns.

Then the attackers began to move towards the civilian side of the airport. They specifically went after the Sri Lankan Airlines flights that were parked on the tarmac. Three craft were completely gutted including a long haul A340 that lay closest to the terminal. The attackers had however not bothered to take out several cargo planes that were parked in close proximity to the Sri Lankan Airlines craft.

Deserted

At the end of the day, the national carrier suffered a loss of three craft plus another two damaged. Fortunately, the civilian tarmac area had been deserted when the attackers approached. Passengers and crew alike had abandoned the area when the Air Force Base came under attack.

The LTTE cadres were now making their way into the civilian terminal building but were met with resistance that came by way of army commandos who had entered from that side. Three attackers were gunned down on the tarmac while three others were either killed or exploded themselves inside the building. Two of them had been able to get on to the roof of the building. The aim would have been to take out the old control tower located on the terminal. The tower suffered gunshot damage. However the attackers were unable to penetrate the outer areas of the terminal where most of the civilians were stranded.

The attackers possibly wanted to take out the control tower as well. But going by where the bodies lay, they were confused by the old control tower that is located on the top floor of the terminal. The new control tower is located separately at the south end of the airport. It had not suffered any damage. The buildings too did not suffer any structural damage other than glass panelling that had been damaged.

The LTTE intruders operated meticulously; of that there is no contention. They had done their reconnaissance to the last decimal point. The point of break-in to the camp would not have been located if not for operatives scouting the area. The Colonel Raj Fernando Stadium is used by the boys in the area to play football and residents said that during weekends some gather on the playground in the night as well.

There are no streetlights towards the end that borders the base. The playground and the base perimeter are separated by an abandoned paddy field and a thick shrub.

Short cut

Air Force personnel had been using a short-cut, probably along the same path that was used by the intruders till recently. The attackers were able to lie in wait till the power cut, and use the darkness to enter the camp. There were no lights that were visible outside the perimeter or even within the perimeter close to the break-in point when The Sunday Leader visited the location just a few hours after the attack. Nor were there any sentry points located close to the hole in the barbed wire fence. They had such good knowledge of the camp that they were able to remain within it for close to five hours before they were detected. That too when they commenced the dreaded operation.

They had also picked a time when there were no foreign flights on the tarmac and airport officials said that Tuesday was one of the days when there was least traffic in the mornings. That also meant that there would be less foreigners in the airport.

Unconfirmed reports indicated that the intruders had even avoided landmines laid to protect the entry points into the camp. The Air Force had its first indication that all was not well when fireballs erupted lighting the morning sky. "We only saw them once they started firing," an Air Force airman manning one of the bunkers on the runway later confessed.

The attackers had so much time on their hand that they were able to decide not to use the boots -- painted to match Air Force colours that they had brought along. Fourteen pairs were later recovered just outside the camp. Officers believe that the boots were discarded, since they would have made a sound while walking through the undergrowth and the camp.

The initial reaction was that the LTTE had used attackers and weapons specially brought from the North for this one-off raid. It would have been hard for the organisation to conceal such a vast armory in the vicinity for a long time. The first thoughts were that the hardcore fighters were inducted through a sea route on to either Puttalam or Kalpitiya, and from there on they proceeded by bus to the playground.

The attackers were hardcore members who had good experience in taking out a military base. They were experienced in handling explosives as well as high caliber weapons. One member lying dead on the tarmac had a thumb missing from a previous attack. They were experienced enough to remain within the camp undetected till the attack was launched and keep the attack going even five hours after it commenced. Even at 8.30 am there was gunfire. The last plane blew up around the same time. The Air Force only handed the civilian area back to Civil Aviation Authorities around 2 pm. The attackers did not include any women cadres.

But the attack would not have been a success if not for the glaring lapses in security on the part of the Air Force. "With all the security, they were able to get in. That we have to admit," Air Force spokesperson Wing Commander Ajith Wijesundera told The Sunday Leader.

The lapses begin from the mundane. The perimeter fence penetrated by the LTTE was covered in weeds and the thick undergrowth, both within and without the camp, would have made discovery impossible. There were no searchlights that were in use when the power cut was in operation. There was no indication that the Air Force had increased security because of the cover created by the power cut. The stand-by generators were also not functioning.

Enormity of the lapses

The Air Force itself had realised the enormity of the lapses last week. Officers were not sure whether the attackers had entered from the Raj Fernando playground side or another possible entry point -- through a rain drain close to the 27-Mile Post.

During the attack, confusion reigned supreme, raising serious concerns about whether there was any contingency plan in place to meet such an attack. Eye witness accounts of friendly fire causing damage to men and machinery only add to the lapses.

There are bunkers that are located at intervals inside the camp along with sentry points that became of no use when all hell broke loose. According to officers, 400 personnel are put on duty at any given time at the base. They come under a wing commander and two squadron leaders. The camp it self houses between 1500 to 2000 officers and airmen. The final call is that 1500 men could not avert a disaster perpetrated by 14 intruders.

What is unpardonable is the fact that the Air Force had prior indications of an attack. Residents in the area said that they had informed the Air Force about the strangers in the ground and also about three gunny bags that were found in the ground after the visitors had vanished. An Air Force foot patrol had inspected the bags that had contained ten mega soft drink bottles, bread purchased from a bakery in Negombo, screwdrivers, medicine, clothes and gum tape. However, the patrol had discarded the find as trivial. "They were not able to recognise that these were logistics," a source within an intelligence arm said.

Discarded

The same source revealed that the airmen had discarded the find as loot left behind by robbers and had in fact told the residents to share the loot among themselves. It was later in the day when the airport was on fire that some of the stuff re-appeared on the playground where the attackers had their last meal.

Residents in the house closest to where the attackers entered said that they had heard sounds in the vicinity around 10.30 pm, and the dogs had started to bark. Someone had then hit the dog. Due to the power cut, the occupants of the house did not venture far, but only checked on the cattle herded outside.

Though there was no specific intelligence on an impending attack on the airport and the base, the usual high security alert had gone out due to the breakdown of peace talks and the arrival of Black July commemorations. "There was no known intelligence report on an impending attack on the air base. But the usual blanket intelligence cover had been issued," according to Military Spokesperson Brig. Sanath Karunaratne.

However, civilians working at the terminal revealed to The Sunday Leader that the MIG jets that are usually parked in the hangar closest to the intruders' path had been recently removed to a middle hangar which is usually used to park MI-17 helicopters of the VIP transport unit.

In the midst of all the security lapses, came the news that the Air Force had celebrated a mess night on Monday night. Several sources confirmed that there had been some sort of a celebration within the camp on the night of the attack. A fact that might explain the lapse in security.

Nevertheless, the Air Force has denied that there was any such celebration. "The base commander has informed us that there was no such celebration on Monday night," Wing Commander Wijesundera said.

Let alone the mess night, there are several loose ends concerning the attack that are mind-boggling to say the least. The LTTE attackers never tried to take out craft that were parked inside the hangaers, they only went for the once parked outside. They obviously had the opportunity of placing explosives on the hangars but that was not an option that had been pursued.

Develop an air wing

They never intended to highjack any of the military aircatf or helicopters that were parked. It is well known that the LTTE had been making attempts to develop an air wing for sometime. The organisation possesses at least one licensed pilot named Shankar and several operatives are studying aeronautics in Canadian universities.

Then there is the issue of the missing man. Fourteen bodies of attackers were recovered after the mayhem. But one was wearing footwear. Why had they brought fifteen pairs? A communications set with a head-set was recovered close to the point where the intruders entered the camp. This has led some of the investigators to believe that there was a handler who was either outside or had come out undetected. The intruders had enough and more time to detect the loss if they had dropped the communication set when they entered, unless the discovery was made just before the attack.

Twenty-four hours after the attack, the Air Force and the Army launched an operation in the area to locate LTTE operators in the vicinity but came up empty-handed. The operation however injured a civilian.

Some residents on the Negombo highway also revealed that they had seen several strangers getting into buses close to the airport and heading towards the Negombo side on Tuesday morning.

Authorities have also not discounted the fact that there could have been inside help forthcoming to the attackers. Such daring would not have been possible if not for information, which would not be forthcoming without a plant within the base. The entry point used by the attackers is located South West of the residence of a high ranking officer at the base.

The LTTE operatives had penetrated close to 2 km in to the camp when the attack commenced through mines, bunkers and sentry points. The question marks will never be answered in full.

The Air Force and the government initiated the usual mockery of probes soon after the attacks. This is the tradition ins Sri Lanka. The string of military lapses and resulting losses have been too large to remember in full -- Elephant Pass, Mulaitivu, Ponneryn, Central Bank, Town Hall ...the list goes on. The probes that were initiated have not meant that attacks have diminished. They have only increased in the daredevil attitude. Unfortunately, going by the present trend an end is nowhere in site for the plight of this country.