25-01-2008

Sri Lanka says kills 39 rebels, planes bomb north

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan warplanes bombed a Tamil Tiger base in the far north while ground battles killed nine rebels on Friday, a day after troops killed 30 rebels in clashes across the region, the military said.

"We have taken a target today...using fighter aircraft and the target was a LTTE transport base located in Selvanagar in Kilinochchi," said air force spokesman Wing Commander Andrew Wijesuriya.

Pilots confirmed the raid was successful, he said.

The military also said they killed nine rebels and injured 12 others when the army destroyed seven Tamil Tiger bunkers in the northwestern district of Mannar on Friday, the latest in a series of confrontations along a shared "border" that separates government territory from the rebels' de facto state in the north.

Seven soldiers were killed in battles on Thursday, the latest in an intensification of the 25-year civil war following the official scrapping of a truce with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam last week.

Kilinochchi is the de facto capital of the LTTE fighting for an independent homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east of the island.

The Tigers were not immediately available for comment on the air raid and independent accounts were not possible.

A pro-rebel Web site, www.tamilnet.com, said a civilian was killed and two others wounded in the air raids and posted pictures of a body lying on a stretcher and debris of a well.

The website separately said three soldiers were killed and six wounded from the fighting in the northern district of Polonnaruwa on Thursday.

The Sri Lankan government scrapped the 2002 truce on January 16, saying the rebels had used it to regroup and re-arm.

Nordic truce monitors, however, accused both the LTTE and the Sri Lankan army of violating the truce.

About 70,000 people have been killed since the war erupted in 1983.

Source-Reuters