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Anuradhapura losses worse than Katunayake’s - Athas |
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Monday, 29 October 2007 |
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Two dozen aircraft of the Sri Lanka Air Force were destroyed or damaged when Black Tiger commandos stormed the Anudradhapura airbase in the early hours last Monday, the Sunday Times reports. Ten aircraft were completely destroyed while fourteen others were damaged, some beyond repair, the paper’s defence correspondent, Iqbal Athas, said in his column this week. All but three of the 27 aircraft in the base were destroyed or damaged, the paper said, publishing pictures of incinerated aircraft on the runway and in the hanger.
The cost of the losses at the airbase could be anything above an estimated US$ 30 million or over three billion rupees, based on prices paid years earlier, the paper said. “However, the replacement prices would be very much higher. This is not only because the prices have since gone up. In addition, the rupee equivalent to the dollar has also risen.”
Only three Mi-17 troop transport helicopters parked some distance away from the fighting escaped, he said.
Comparing the damage caused during the attack on the SLAF airbase in Katunayake and the one at Anuradahapura, Athas said: “The LTTE caused more damage at Anuradhapura since the losses there are higher.
Copyright © 2007 NTT. All rights reserved
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