Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Liberation Tigers Field World's Only Insurgent Air Force

Image: Moravan Aviation (Czech Republic) Zlin Z 142 aircraft, used by the air force of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

You'd think it would happen more often in countries with limited state air force capacity, but as far as I know, Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are the only insurgent group in the world to currently have an air force.

The Air Tigers appear to have used their air force to set the main power plant in Colombo on fire. This rare photo below shows their cool uniforms.

An undated picture released by Tamil Tiger rebels shows two Tiger soldiers by a light aircraft


The bombing mechanism is apparently manufactured by the Tigers themselves. It's just a rack with four bombs on it under the plane. (article with photo).

A report says that they actually achieved two hits on the power plant. These guys seem to have pretty good aim. There was a power outage, but that might have been a defensive measure to make visual targeting more difficult.

The aim looks pretty good for four gravity bombs, although I suppose they might have been able to fly pretty close to the target in their slow-moving little plane.

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