COLOMBO, SRI LANKA — Sri Lankan air force today bombed ethnic Tamil separatists near their de facto capital in the north, the government said, while a pro-rebel report said artillery shells fired by government troops killed an infant and two others.
Fighter jets bombed nine times to the west and northwest of the Tamil Tiger rebel headquarters in Kilinochchi, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.
He said pilots confirmed some rebel bunkers were successfully hit but casualty details were not available.
Meanwhile rebel-affiliated TamilNet Web site reported that government soldiers fired artillery into two rebel-held villages, killing three civilians displaced by the war.
A round of shells hit a settlement for the displaced, killing a five-month-old infant, and a second round killed two farmers working in their field, said the Web site, which also carried photos of the dead.
Military spokesman Nanayakkara denied killing civilians, saying that the soldiers operated far away from the villages mentioned by the Web site.
It is difficult to verify claims made by both sides because most journalists are barred from the war zone.
Rebel officials could not be contacted for comment because communication lines to guerrilla territory have been severed.
Government forces have been locked in intense battles with the rebels on the edge of Kilinochchi for weeks despite predicting the city’s “imminent fall.” But troops have been able to seize large swaths of rebel-held territory in recent months, forcing the guerrillas into an increasingly small stronghold in the northeast.
In the latest ground fighting, snipers killed four rebels west of Kilinochchi on Friday, the Defense Ministry said. Artillery strikes in the same area left another six insurgents dead, it said.
The rebels have been fighting since 1983 to create an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils, who have suffered marginalization at the hands of successive governments controlled by majority ethnic Sinhalese. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.
