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Eighteen dead in Sri Lanka air raids

Colombo: Continuing its offensive against Tamil rebels, Sri Lankan jets on Thursday bombed suspected LTTE positions in the island's northeast, killing 18 persons. The Defence Ministry said the aerial raids were conducted by MIG jets on a rebel training camp in Vavuniya, but gave no further details. Sri Lanka has intensified attacks on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) after the rebels fired mortars at two helicopters carrying foreign diplomats and a Government Minister to the restive eastern Batticaloa district on Tuesday.

The navy on Wednesday attacked a rebel flotilla in the eastern waters, destroying two of the boats. In another incident, naval patrol boats fired at and sank a large vessel believed to have been carrying arms for the rebels. At least 15 separatists are believed to have died in the two incidents. Over 60,000 persons have died in the decades-long struggle for independence waged by the LTTE. With the surge in fighting since December 2005, over 3,800 lives have been lost on both sides.

Meanwhile, a military guard nabbed a separatist rebel trying to plant a bomb beside a military camp in northern Sri Lanka, a senior military official said on Thursday.

The man was overpowered and handed over to the police late on Wednesday, said Lt. Col. Upali Rajapakse, a senior officer at the Defence Ministry's Information Centre.

Mr. Rajapakse said the man was a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which is fighting to create a separate state for Sri Lanka's 3.1 million ethnic Tamil minority.

The man was carrying a remote control device, a stand to set up a Claymore roadside bomb, a detonator, a roll of wires and a hand grenade. — PTI, AP

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