Sri Lanka's navy forced a fleeing Tamil Tiger plane to turn back in barrages of anti-aircraft fire amid growing speculation over the location of the separatist group's leader, military sources said today.
The small plane - one of three the military says the Tigers have in their tiny air wing - was spotted flying out to sea from near the eastern port of Mullaittivu late on Tuesday.
"The military had observed the aircraft coming from the north and after half an hour it was seen by an eastern naval patrol. They fired at it so it could not leave the country," a military source told Reuters.
The current location of the aircraft is unknown, sources added.
The air force would only say that observers briefly spotted what appeared to be an airplane's running lights.
With a military onslaught shrinking the territory held by Tigers by the day, one of the biggest questions remaining is where leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran is hiding and how he might try to escape Sri Lanka.
Last week, the Sri Lankan army's commander said Prabhakaran may have fled the island already and could be hiding somewhere in southeast Asia, where the Tigers have supporters and had run weapons-smuggling operations.
The Tigers have carried out nine attacks with their fleet of Czech-made, single-engine planes, and so far Sri Lanka's air force jets have been unable to intercept them.
The jets are based far from the war zone near the capital Colombo, and the Tigers tend to fly their planes low enough to avoid radar.
Reuters