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Sri Lanka says jets bomb rebel leaders in north
21 Sep 2007 09:07:23 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Ranga Sirilal

COLOMBO, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan fighter jets bombed a Tamil Tiger military base in the rebel-held far north on Friday triggering multiple explosions, the air force said, the second such strike in as many days.

The raid near the town of Puthukkudiyiruppu in the northern district of Mullaittivu was targeted at top leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

"We got to know through intelligence there was a high ranking meeting of the LTTE, so we took the target," said Air Force spokesman Group Captain Ajantha De Silva.

"It was an LTTE military complex called Imbran Pandian regiment." He had no details of any casualties.

The LTTE who say they are fighting for an independent state for minority ethnic Tamils in the north and east, were not immediately available for comment.

There was no independent confirmation of what the jets hit, how many people were killed or what had happened and analysts say both sides exaggerate enemy losses amid a parallel propaganda war.

Following another raid in the area on Thursday, in which the military said it destroyed a rebel munitions store, the Tigers said the bombs had damaged houses and wounded six civilians.

The bombings come on the heels of a new offensive launched by the Sri Lankan military this month to drive the rebels from the northwestern district of Mannar, after pushing them out from jungle terrain they controlled in the east earlier this year.

An estimated 5,000 people have died since early last year alone in renewed fighting after a peace process collapsed. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced since the war erupted in 1983.
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Sri Lankan soldiers arrive at the site of a military helicopter gunship crash following a dawn attack in Anuradhapura October 22, 2007. The Tamil Tigers' air wing bombed a north Sri Lanka air force base before dawn on Monday, the military said, while the Tigers said suicide fighters mounted their biggest ground assault since the two-decade civil war began. The rebel air strike in the north-central district of Anuradhapura comes months after the Tigers' first ever air attacks using light aircraft smuggled into the country in pieces, and as near daily land, air and sea clashes occur. REUTERS/Stringer (SRI LANKA)



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