Tigers a threat to India too: Lanka

A day after Tami Tigers carried out their first ever aerial attack on a Sri Lankan military airbase, President Mahinda Rajapakse on Tuesday said the air strike capability of the rebels could be a threat to the South Asian security, particularly that of India and Indonesia.

"We are not alone in facing the terrorist threat. India and Indonesia too have similar threats. At a time when terrorism manifests itself in different ways, the LTTE's air strike capability would become a threat to the international community," the President's office quoted him as saying.

The LTTE on Monday bombed the Katunayake military airbase, about 35 kilometres north of Colombo, using two light aircraft, killing three airmen and injuring 16.

Rajapakse ordered an investigation into the major security lapses that allowed the attack, which seriously embarrassed the defence establishment.

Military officials say the Tigers are known to possess at least two Czech-built Zlin-143 single-engine four-seater aircraft and an airfield.

Sri Lanka's foreign minister Rohitha Bogollegama told the foreign correspondents' association in Colombo that Sri Lanka will take up the question terrorism during next month's South Asian summit in New Delhi.

"We want a counter terrorism drive," Bogollegama said, adding that the existing SAARC convention of prevention and suppression of terrorism had failed to deliver desired results.

"Has the present arrangement on terrorism worked? Terrorism has only increased in the region," the minister said.