Lanka jets attack LTTE base

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI

Colombo

Oct. 10: Sri Lankan fighter jets pounded a Tamil Tiger suicide bombers’ camp deep in the embattled north on Friday, a day after a suicide attack blamed on the rebels killed two people and wounded five near the capital, the military said. The airstrike on the camp for the suicide bombers, known as Black Tigers, in the rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi came during an intensified government offensive against the rebels de facto state in the north. Officials have pledged to crush the rebels by the end of 2008.

Also on Friday, Air Force jets bombed a rebel communication centre and hide-out used by senior rebel leaders in Kilinochchi, said Air Force spokesman wing commander Janaka Nanayakkara. He said pilots confirmed the attacks were successful, but details of damage and casualties were not immediately available.

On Thursday, a suspected rebel suicide bomber blew herself up near a convoy carrying a senior Sri Lankan Cabinet minister, killing two bystanders and wounding the minister’s deputy. Maithripala Sirisena, the agricultural development minister, was not hurt in the blast in Boralwegamuwa, about 15 kilometres from the capital, Colombo, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.

Mr Sirisena’s junior minister, Siripala Gamlath, was wounded, Mr Nanayakkara said, blaming Tamil Tigers for the blast. On Monday, a suicide blast blamed on the rebels killed a former Army general, Janaka Perera, and 26 others in the northern town of Anuradhapura. The rebels, banned as a terrorist group in the United States and European Union, did not comment. —AP