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Lankan jets bomb rebel air, sea bases

20 killed in fighting

AP, Colombo
Sri Lanka's air force bombed a Tamil Tiger rebel air base and a rebel navy base, while separate ground clashes in the country's war-torn north left 20 combatants dead, the military said Tuesday.
Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said the rebel sea base was targeted Monday night, while the air base was bombed early Tuesday.
Pilots confirmed that they hit their targets but casualty and damage details were not immediately available, he said.
Meanwhile, infantry fighting across the northern front lines of the island s civil war killed 16 rebels and four soldiers, Nanayakkara said. The fighting took place Monday along the Jaffna, Mannar. .Vavuniya and Weljoyjt fronr?^ lie said.
Rebel spokesman Ra si ah Uantlurayan could nut be niuuvdi ately reached for comment.
It was not possible to verify the military's claims because reporters are not allowed into the war zone.
The rebels first deployed their air wing last year to attack military
and economic targets. It is made up of a few self-assembled, low-flying aircraft.
Sri Lankan troops on the ground have been trying to push into the northern rebel territory from four fronts, while the air force has supported them With near-daily bombingraids.
The government earlier vowed to crush the insurgents by the end of this year. However, the island's army chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka told Colombo-based foreign correspondents Monday that while the rebels have been stripped of their conventional fighting capabilities, it may take another year to defeat them.
Tamil Tiger rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils, who have faced marginalisation at the hands? of; ‘successive governments controlled by majority ethnic Mnii.uvM- Mine than . u.diiupt .tpn have been killed in the conflict.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s main media rights group Tuesday condemned an assault on a journalist and a senior British High Commission officer and
demanded that the attackers be brought to justice.
Political officer Mahendra Ratnaweera was severely injured in the Monday evening attack in Colombo while his passenger, freelance journalist and defence analyst Namai Perera, also suffered serious injuries.
The incident came less than a month after Sri Lanka's hawkish defence ministry' launched scathing attacks against journalists critical of its war against Tamil rebels, calling them "enemies of the state."
It also came days after the government moved to deflect a barrage of criticism over its press rights record by promising to help journalists receiving death threats.
The Free Media Movement (FMM) said it will treat the latest incident as a "litmus Test" of, the effectiveness of the high-powered ininiMeii.it committee appointed b\ I'H sHh-m MahindaRajapakse to prevent attacks against journalists.
"We will be closely monitoring the actions taken by' the government to bring the perpetrators to justice in this latest criminal act," the group said.