Thissamaharama Attack?

The Tamilnet has claimed 'LTTE Commandos' have ambushed a Sri Lanka Navy bus killing six sailors. DefenceWire has heard otherwise. A bus carrying a group of naval ratings has stopped and the ratings on board had opened fire on what they had considered an enemy presence. The bus, which is a heavily armed vehicle, did not show any signs of gunshot or shrapnel damage. No presence of LTTE cadres, let alone 'Commandos' are reported in the area.

Athas' 'Deep Sea' Blunder

Renowned defence columnist Iqbal Athas, in an interview with the Hindustan Times has made the following statement; (in the words of the newspaper)

"Iqbal Athas, Sri Lanka correspondent of Jane's Defense Weekly told Hindustan Times, that that the SLAF's Chinese-made K-8 jet trainer and a propeller driven naval reconnaissance plane were also destroyed, crippling the Sri Lankan Navy's deep sea operations."

The reference to the 'propeller driven naval reconnaissance plane' is the C12-Huron Beech Super King aircraft destroyed by the Tigers on Monday. This account is counter factual. The Beechcraft has never assisted the Navy in deep sea operations. The only time it assisted them was in September last year when it captured, along with other surveillance units, an accurate image of an LTTE ship. The fast mid-sized ship was more a boat than a ship. This enabled the SLN to seek and destroy the vessel. The Beechcraft has never assisted the Navy in any of its deep sea operations ever. It did not have the capacity to travel such distances, which sometimes involved deep sea operations to the outer atolls of Australia.