(29 Apr 2007)
++AMATEUR VIDEO - QUALITY AS INCOMING++
++ NIGHT SHOTS ++
1. Various of anti-aircraft missiles being fired into sky AUDIO gunfire and shouting
STORYLINE:
Dramatic images captured by an amateur cameraman in Colombo early on Sunday showed the Sri Lankan military shooting at what was believed to be one of two aircraft belonging to the Tamil Tigers flying over the capital.
The video filmed in Colombo's Slave Island district showed volleys of shots being fired into the sky, as witnesses said they saw the plane lit-up in the night sky.
Tamil Tiger rebel aircraft bombed a fuel refinery and gas storage facility near the capital Colombo early on Sunday, forcing authorities to cut power to the city and shut down Sri Lanka's only international airport, officials said.
The rebel aircraft dropped four bombs near Colombo, said an official at the defence ministry's media centre, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.
He said one bomb hit a storage hut near a gas storage tank, sparking a fire.
Two other bombs were dropped near a fuel refinery in Kolonnawa, on the outskirts of Colombo, but did not explode.
The last bomb fell into a nearby swamp.
A Sri Lankan soldier who witnessed the rebel attack said he saw a low-flying plane drop two bombs on a gas storage facility in Kerawalapitiya, 10 kilometres (6.5 miles) north of Colombo.
The extent of damage was not immediately known.
Hours later Sri Lankan air force fighter planes responded by pounding the rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi in northern Sri Lanka, targeting rebel aircraft.
Sunday's attack was the third assault by Tamil Tiger planes since their first-ever air strike in March when they bombed an air force base near Colombo, killing at least three airmen.
All three air strikes were launched at night using planes flying without lights to avoid detection.
As a security measure on Sunday, officials knocked out power to the entire capital, as well as the country's only international airport and an adjoining air force base.
Many people were awake watching Sri Lanka's cricket team play Australia in the World Cup final on television when the power was shut off.
All passengers aboard planes were called back into the terminals and air traffic was suspended for about an hour, an employee of the international airport said, speaking on condition on anonymity.
A rebel spokesman, said the Tamil Tiger aircraft bombed two facilities that supply fuel to the Sri Lankan air force.
Speaking by phone from Kilinochchi in northern Sri Lanka, he said both squadrons had returned safely and the pilots had confirmed they had hit their targets.
Sri Lanka's separatist conflict flared in 1983 when separatist rebels started fighting for an independent homeland for the country's 3.1 million ethnic minority Tamils, who complain of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.
More than 69-thousand people have been killed in the conflict.
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