COLOMBO, March 27 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan troops shot a Tamil Tiger rebel as he tried to drive an explosives-laden tractor into an army camp in the east on Tuesday, the military said, setting off an explosion which killed him and two soldiers.

"We have shot an LTTE suicide cadre who tried to enter into Chenkalady camp (in the eastern district of Batticaloa) in an explosives-filled tractor," said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe.

"It exploded before entering, and the bomber and two troops were killed."

The attack comes a day after a Tiger light aircraft bombed a Sri Lankan air force base next to Colombo international airport, killing three airmen and wounding 16 in the first such air strike by the rebel group since the island's two-decade civil war erupted in 1983.

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