March 26 (Reuters) - A Tamil Tiger light aircraft bombed a Sri Lankan air force base next to Colombo's international airport early on Monday, killing three airmen and wounding 16 in the first such air strike by the rebel group.

Here is a chronology of deadly attacks blamed on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fighting for a separate Tamil homeland since 1983:

April 1987 - Car bomb explodes at Colombo central bus station, killing 113 people and wounding scores.

April 1989 - Car bomb explodes in the eastern port of Trincomalee, killing 51 people shopping for traditional new year.

March 1991: Defence Minister Ranjan Wijeratne is among 19 e killed when a car bomb is detonated in Colombo.

May 1991 - Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is killed in southern India by a suspected LTTE suicide bomber.

August 1992 - The army chief, Lieutenant-General Denzil Kobbekaduwa, is killed in a landmine blast in Kayts, in northern Sri Lanka.

November 1992 - Navy chief Clancey Fernando is killed in a suicide bombing in Colombo.

May 1993 - President Ranasinghe Premadasa and 23 others are killed by a suicide bomber in Colombo.

October 1994 - Presidential candidate Gamini Dissanayake is one of 52 killed in a bomb blast at a Colombo election rally.

January 1996 - A truck filled with explosives rams into the Central Bank building in Colombo, killing up to 100 people and wounding 1,400.

July 1996 - Two bomb blasts on a rush-hour commuter train kill 57 people and wounds more than 250.

December 1999 - President Chandrika Kumaratunga is wounded in an attempted assassination by a suicide bomber; at least 34 are killed in two explosions.

June 2000 - Industrial Development Minister C.V. Gunaratne and 21 others are killed in a suicide bomb blast in Colombo.

July 2001 - An attack on the country's main air base and only international airport kills at least 12 and destroys 13 aircraft.

August 2005 - Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar is shot dead at his home in Colombo.

April 2006 - Army Commander Major General Sarath Fonseka is badly hurt in an abortive suicide attack on Army HQ in Colombo.

June 2006 - A mine attack on a civilian bus in the central district of Anuradapura kills 64.

October 2006 - Nearly 100 people, mostly navy sailors, are killed in a suicide bombing on a convoy near the town of Habarana, northeast of Colombo.

December 2006 - Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, narrowly escapes a suspected Tiger bomb attack on his convoy in central Colombo.

March 26, 2007 - A Tamil Tiger light aircraft bombs an air force base next to Colombo international airport, killing three airmen and wounding 16 in the first such rebel air strike.

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