Cue Limp Bizkit – “Rollin (Air Assault)”

Well, we weren’t expecting the Spanish Inquisition, either, but this is something that you don’t hear about often:

rebel groups with planes.

Yes. Not only do the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka/Tamil Eelam have ground forces and a home-grown navy, but now they even have their own air force, which commenced its first operation in the wee hours of earlier today on Sri Lanka’s largest airport.

Of course, the government’s own fighter jets were in hangars, so they weren’t damaged by the planes above.

However, this is an unprecedented show of force by the Tamil Tigers, who’ve been fighting bitterly against the Sinhala-dominated government since the 1970’s for the secession of the predominately-Tamil-speaking section of the island (mostly a sliver of coast on the northeastern side).

This has also spread to continental India several times, most infamously with the assassination of Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi by Tamil Tiger operatives (his mother, ex-PM Indira Gandhi, was also assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards; the Sikhs have also aspired for the secession of their homeland from India for several decades).

As the Tigers are classified as terrorists by a number of governments (including the US) because of their tendency to use suicide attacks against government officials, it would be safe to wonder about that air power that they now have:

what if other rebel and terrorist groups decided to create their own particular air assault forces?

What new airborne horror has been opened on the world, whoopass-style?

Let’s just hope that airborne violence doesn’t become a popular medium for one’s expression of disaffection with the status quo.