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Sri Lankan jets take aim at Tamil Tiger military base

Sri Lankan fighter jets bombed a Tamil rebel base in northern Sri Lanka yesterday while a rebel roadside bomb killed two soldiers in the same region, the military said.

The planes pounded a Tamil Tiger military base in the rebel stronghold of Mullaitivu District in northern Sri Lanka, military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said.

He did not give details on damage or casualties, but said pilots had confirmed that the target had been hit.

Hours later, the separatist rebels detonated a roadside bomb in the government-held northern Jaffna peninsula, killing two soldiers, he said.

The blast targeted two soldiers who were patrolling on a motorcycle in Jaffna, Samarasinghe said.

There was no immediate comment from rebels on either incident.

The Tigers run a functioning mini-state in large sections of the north, but the military has launched regular attacks to weaken them.

Separately, the military said one soldier had been killed and two others wounded when they were caught in a booby trap during an operation to secure the last rebel stronghold in eastern Sri Lanka.

The soldiers were caught in the trap on Wednesday, the Defense Ministry information center said.

The military is attempting to capture Thoppigala, a mountainous area that separatist Tamil Tiger rebels have hung on to for the past 14 years. Soldiers have driven out the rebels from most of their strongholds in the east and Thoppigala remains their final hold.

Sri Lanka's separatist conflict is worsening by the day and more than 5,000 people have been killed in fighting over the past 19 months, rendering a 2002 Norway-brokered ceasefire meaningless.
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