Colombo: Severely damaged during the LTTE's first ever coordinated land and air strike on October 22, the Anuradhapura air base in north central Sri Lanka has been reorganised and the runway made fully operational.

As part of the measures to strengthen the system at the base, a new Sri Lankan Air Force Base Commander will take over the operations and a commander has already been temporarily assigned the job.

Shedding their fears and anxiety, pilgrims have also started thronging Anuradhapura, a sacred Buddhist city which is located 212 kms north of Colombo.

"It did not take much time and the pilgrims are here as usual," a senior Air Force official told the Colombo Post adding that a new Air Force Ground Defence officer had taken over and the airfield reorganised.

Stating that the runway at the Saliyapura Air Force base in Anuradhapura has been made fully operational, the official said more troops have been brought in to reinforce the security.

While attacking on the ground on Monday last week, the Tigers also sent in their light aircraft to bomb the base from overhead killing 14 troops and 20 rebels, and destroying eight aircraft. 

In July 2001, the tiger rebels had deployed 14 of their men and staged a similar strike against the main air force near Colombo, which shares a runway with the international airport.

Major General Sanath Karunaratne who took over as the Overall Operations Commander of the Anuradhapura Air Base last week is assessing the additional requirements needed for the base to prevent the LTTE type attacks.

The recommendations of the two inquiry committee into the incident in which at least eight aircraft were damaged and resulted in a dozen security forces personnel killed would be taken into consideration while working out the new strategies, a defence official said.

As many as 20 LTTE suicide cadres were also killed in the incident. The latest Tiger attack comes after a string of setbacks for the rebels, who in July this year lost their last stronghold in the east of the island amid a breakdown in a Norwegian-brokered 2002 truce.

Source : PTI