The Sri Lankan military said its Air Force bombed a hideout of Tamil Tiger rebels' top leader Velupillai Prabakaran in the north Wednesday morning and they believed Prabakaran was there when the bombing took place.
Officials from the Defense Ministry said the Air Force fighter jets in a low flying mission targeted the rebels' "X-ray base" located east of Iranamadu Tank at around 11:15 a.m. (0545 GMT) bordering the northern districts of Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi.
The area has been long demarcated as a "high security zone" and a "no-go" area for civilians, officials said, adding that the targeted location has been a regular visiting place of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels' chief Prabhakaran.
Air Force Spokesman Andi Wijesoriya said the air sorties were conducted with pinpoint accuracy on information obtained through real-time air surveillance and ground reconnaissance.
However, LTTE Military Spokesman Irasiah Ilanthirayan claimed that the Air Force attack targeted civilian settlements twice.
Suppayya Paramu Tamilselvan, political head of the LTTE was killed in a similar air strike on Nov. 2, 2007 in Kilinochchi.
Clashes between government troops and the LTTE continued to intensify after the government's decision to withdraw from the 2002 cease-fire agreement took effect on Jan. 16.
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse said Tuesday that he does not believe in a military solution to the conflict, but the LTTE must be militarily defeated before a political solution could be offered to the Tamil minority.
The LTTE has been fighting since 1983 for an independent state for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority in the north and east claiming discrimination from the Sinhalese-dominated governments.
More than 70,000 people have been killed in one of the world's longest running ethnic conflicts.
Source: Xinhua
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