Sri Lankan Air Force pounds rebel targets

(0805 GMT).Military officials said all the three air strikes were successful.Earlier on Wednesday, suspected Tamil Tigers exploded a bomb in the capital Colombo targeting a passenger train, injuring at least17 civilians and damaging a section of railway track.Sri Lanka's security forces are currently battling LTTE rebels in the north with the aim of crushing them before the end of 2008.The LTTE has been fighting the troops since the mid-1980s to carve out a separate homeland for the Tamil minority in the north and east, resulting in the deaths of more than 70,000 people.

 COLOMBO, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The military in Sri Lanka said the Air Force bombed three targets of Tamil Tiger rebels in the north on Wednesday, hours after 17 civilians were injured in an explosion in the capital Colombo. Officials from the Media Center for National Security said the first air ... ...was carried out around 11:40 a. (0610 GMT) on a Sea Tiger base located one km southeast of Nayaru lagoon in the Mullaitivu district. About two hours later, the Air Force bombed an LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) artillery point in the Kalmunei area of the Kilinochchi district. Another LTTE artillery point in the Muhamalai area of the Jaffna peninsula was engaged by Air Force fighter jets around 1:35p. (0805 GMT). Military officials said all the three air strikes were successful. Earlier on Wednesday, suspected Tamil Tigers exploded a bomb in the capital Colombo targeting a passenger train, injuring at least17 civilians and damaging a section of railway track. Sri Lanka's security forces are currently battling LTTE rebels in the north with the aim of crushing them before the end of 2008. The LTTE has been fighting the troops since the mid-1980s to carve out a separate homeland for the Tamil minority in the north and east, resulting in the deaths of more than 70,000 people.

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