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Indian airforce plans wargames in tsunami-hit Andamans CALCUTTA, India (AFP) Mar 12, 2005 The Indian Air Force, which lost pilots and aircraft when tsunamis swept across the Andamans Islands in December, will hold wargames over the Indian Ocean archipelago next month, airforce chief Shashi Tyagi said Saturday. "We are yet to fix a date, but it will take place in the first week of April," Tyagi said in Calcutta. He said the wargames over the Andaman archipelago, which stretches from Myanmar to Indonesia, will involve British-made Jaguar bombers and Russian Sukhoi fighters. Tyagi said a strategic airbase in Car Nicobar island, which was devastated by towering waves, was operational although buildings were yet to be repaired. More than 100 pilots and their relatives were killed by the waves that also wrecked military planes on the ground in Car Nicobar on December 26. Despite its losses, the air force rescued tens of thousands of marooned tsunami victims from the Andamans' 36 inhabited islands. More than 2,000 poeple died and 5,640 others, including pilots and ground crew, are still listed as missing nearly three months after the disaster in the tropical paradise. The tsunamis killed more than 16,000 people in India and more than 273,000 around the Indian Ocean region, from Indonesia to East Africa. All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.
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