COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan Air Force yesterday bombed a suspected training base of female suicide cadres of the Tamil Tigers amid fierce ground battles in the country’s north.
The jets made “precision raids” at a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam training facility at Vallipuram, 6km northwest of Puthukkudiyiruppu in Mullaitivu, around 10am, the defence ministry said.
The rebel heartland of Mullaitivu is located some 350km northeast of Colombo.
Quoting air force sources, it said the air strikes followed “reliable information received on intense terrorist activity at the location.
“The target was a most frequented site of the LTTE’s intelligence wing chief Pottu Amman,” the defence ministry said, adding that armoured vehicles mounted with anti-aircraft guns were observed rushing to the target site following the attack.“According to intelligence reports, the terrorists were conducting a discreet ‘dry practice session’ involving a large number of female terrorists,” it said.
There was no immediate reaction from the LTTE.
Earlier, on September 27, the air force claimed to have conducted a similar strike on a suspected LTTE female suicide training base at Rathnapuram in Kilinochchi, 250km north of here.
The latest bombings came a day after LTTE aircraft carried two bombing raids on Tuesday night, targeting a military camp in the north-western Mannar district and a power plant in Colombo. Meanwhile, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said that troops had captured “the heavily-fortified LTTE forward defence lines” at Nachchikuda in the west of Kilinochchi district by Wednesday evening.
Nachchikuda is the last naval point in the northwestern coastal belt. – IANS
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