Sri Lankan Air Force Strikes More Tamil Rebel TargetsSri Lankan air force jets continued their air strikes against separatist Tamil Tiger rebel targets in the north of the country on Thursday, killing 16 rebels in the past two days.The air force jets attacked a bunker line of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in northern Jaffna peninsula on Thursday morning, the Defense Ministry said. It also said that seven LTTE rebels were killed and a tractor destroyed on Wednesday at Pallai in Jaffna peninsula while the air force bombed LTTE rebels trying to reconstruct bunkers destroyed in earlier air attacks. Nine LTTE trainees were killed and 17 others injured in a severe bombardment by air force jets on Tuesday over a militant training camp in the eastern Batticaloa district, the ministry said. In the northern Welioya area four rebels were also killed when government forces fired on their bunkers on Wednesday, it said. The air force have intensified their air strikes against the LTTE rebels after the rebels launched a pre-dawn attack on the country's major airbase and its only international airport next door on July 24. A total of 14 military and civilian aircraft were damaged or destroyed and 14 Tamil rebels and seven military personnel were killed in the attack. The LTTE rebels have been fighting against government forces since 1983 in the north and east of the country attempting to set up an independent Tamil homeland there. More than 64,000 people have died in the brutal ethnic war. |
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