Two soldiers have been killed in a suicide attack by the Tamil Tigers on an army camp in eastern Sri Lanka, officials have said.
A tractor and trailer loaded with explosives was detonated at the camp in Batticaloa district. Earlier, rebels said the Sri Lankan government had carried out four air raids in the north of the island, after the Tigers' first ever air attack.
Three air force personnel died and 16 people were hurt in the Tigers' raid. The international airport - which was not damaged - was closed briefly. Tiger rebels attacked the airport and base in 2001, killing 18 and wiping out half of the national airline fleet.
The Katunayake airbase and the civilian airport share the same runwayA statement from the Tamil Tigers, carried by the pro-rebel Tamilnet website, claimed responsibility for the attack on the military base, which is 30km (20 miles) north of Colombo.
The government said one plane was used. The rebels said two aircraft took part and that both planes returned to rebel-held territory safely. Air force officials said no planes were hit, damage to the military facility was "minor" and that a search operation was under way.
The air force base, which adjoins the country's only international passenger airport, houses some of the aircraft used in recent air strikes against Tiger rebel bases in the north.
Despite a ceasefire still being in place on paper, Sri Lanka has been sliding back towards civil war, with more than 4,000 people killed in the past 15 months, our correspondent says.
The rebels have been fighting the armed forces of the predominantly Sinhalese government for much of the past 20 years. They want to establish an independent homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and east of the country, to be called Tamil Eelam. About 65,000 people have been killed and one million displaced by the fighting.
Source: BBC
Our button
print version
