Colombo: The Sri Lankan Air Force, which
played a key role in the defeat of the LTTE during the ethnic
conflict, today offered its aircraft for UN peace keeping
operations.
Sri Lanka Air Force spokesman Andy Wijesuriya said
they have made the offer to the UN. Helicopter gunships and
Y12 passenger craft are the likely deployments.
"With the end to the war time operations, aircraft are
now grounded. It will be nice to offer them for peace keeping
operations," Wijesuriya was quoted as saying by government-
owned 'Lakhanda' radio.
The airforce's Kfir bombers and MI24 gunships carried
out relentless raids on LTTE targets.
Also they were successful in destroying LTTE's
floating warehouses mid sea, crippling crucial supply lines of
hardware replenishments.
The LTTE waged a bloody three-decade civil war for a
separate state for the Tamils of Sri Lanka, alleging
discrimination against the minority community at the hands of
the majority Sinhalas.
The Lankan military crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels in
May 2009 and ended the ethnic conflict that killed between
80,000 and 100,000 people.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, June 18, 2011, 23:20