COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's only international airport reopened on Wednesday, a day after a suicide attack by Tamil Tiger rebels destroyed passenger jets and closed the airport, stranding several thousand tourists. (Read photo caption below)The first flight was UL 679 with 160 passengers from Sydney, which had been diverted to Madras in India just before it was to have landed at almost the exact time the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels launched their attack early on Tuesday.
Officials said at least 13 Tamil rebels and seven military personnel were killed in the attack.
``The next week will be difficult, we'll have to cobble schedules together and see how it goes,'' SriLankan Airlines chief executive officer Peter Hill told Reuters.
He added it would take several days to clear the backlog of about 2,000 tourists who were to have flown out on Tuesday.
The extent of the fighting was immediately brought home to the arriving passengers as they taxied by the charred wreckage of three SriLankan Airlines Airbuses.
The airline also had three planes damaged, reducing its fleet to six Airbuses.
The attack, tales of passengers fleeing for their lives during gunfire and bomb blasts and images of the burned-out planes are set to further hurt the island's tourism industry.
Repercussions rippled inside and outside Sri Lanka, with the media questioning lax security, and the United States and Britain urging their citizens to avoid nonessential travel to the island.
A one-day cricket match between Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Colombo on Wednesday was played under increased security.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga appointed a high-ranking air force officer to head an inquiry, and state radio said three suspects had been arrested.
The Tigers have made no comment since the attack.




PHOTO CAPTION:
Airmen inspect the remains of a Sri Lankan Airlines Airbus destroyed in the pre-dawn attack on the airport by Tamil Tiger rebels on the 18th anniversary of the country's ethnic war in Colombo July 24, 2001. At least 14 people were killed in the guerrilla attack that also destroyed eight air force aircraft and three Sri Lankan Airlines aircraft. (Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi/Reuters)