Sri Lanka bombs rebels after seizing their HQ

Sri Lankan air force jets and helicopters bombed a series of rebel targets in the north and northeast, the military said Saturday, as soldiers pressed deeper into Tamil Tiger territory a day after capturing the insurgents' de facto capital.

The fall of Kilinochchi on Friday dealt a devastating blow to the insurgents' 25-year campaign to create an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils. It has squeezed them into 620 square miles (1,605 square kilometers) they still hold in the northeast.

Rebel-affiliated TamilNet Web site said the Tamil Tigers had moved their headquarters before the town fell.

Government's defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said Saturday that soldiers would press ahead with offensives and would "liberate the whole northern province."

He the said the troops will conduct "simultaneous operations" against two rebel strongholds: Elephant Pass in the north and Mullaitivu in the northeast.

The government has vowed to crush the rebels and end the civil war this year. Officials had previously promised to end the conflict in 2008.

The military said in a statement that the air force also bombed rebel targets Friday to assist troops trying to reach Elephant Pass, a strategic gateway to the northern Jaffna peninsula, the cultural capital of the country's Tamils.

Sri Lanka's army maintained a well-fortified base at the pass until the rebels captured it eight years ago killing hundreds of soldiers.

Air force spokesman Janaka Nanayakkara said that helicopters also bombed the rebels near Oddusuddan and Mullaitivu towns Saturday as the insurgents tried to stop advancing government troops.

He said casualty details from the raids were unavailable. Rebel officials could not be contacted for comment.

Army troops cleared the way into Kilinochchi on Thursday when they captured a key crossroad north of the town that allowed them to close in from three directions, the military said. They entered Kilinochchi the following morning with minimal resistance, they said.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has vowed to destroy the group formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, announced the fall of Kilinochchi in a nationally televised speech.

"Our brave and heroic troops have fully captured Kilinochchi, which was considered the main bastion of the LTTE," he said. "For the last time, I call upon the LTTE to lay down their arms and surrender."

But just an hour after the announcement, a suspected rebel suicide attacker blew himself up near air force headquarters in the heart of Colombo, air force spokesman Nanayakkara said. Among the 37 injured were 16 airmen, he said.

The rebels have been fighting since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalization by successive governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. The conflict has killed more than 70,000 people