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Lankan troops advance on rebels' military HQ

Another bomb blast in Colombo

Ai p, Colombo
Sri Lankan troops advanced yesterday on the military headquarters of the Tamil Tigers and engaged the rebels in fresh gunbattles, a day after capturing their de facto political capital
The defence ministry said ground forces, backed by helicopter gunships and war planes, were moving towards Mullaittivu, the jungle district along the northeastern seaboard, where the Tigers have their main military facilities.
"The battle for Mullaitivu has already begun," the ministry said in a statement.
The air force used Mi-24 helicopter gunships to carry out three bombing raids Saturday in support of the advancing troops while jet aircraft were also deployed to hit Tiger positions, a military spokesman said.
He added that 10 such missions were carried out on Friday.
Troops, who took the Tigers' northern stronghold of Kilinochchi on Friday, were fanning out to neighbouring areas and confronted small pockets of rebel resistance, a military official said.
"Several Tigers were killed and security forces also suffered injuries," the official said.
The pro-rebel Tamilnet website reported that a petrol station and a bus station were bombed by the air force on Friday morning, killing four civilians and wounding another eight.
Meanwhile, at least three people were wounded in a bomb blast in Sri Lanka s capital Colombo on Saturday, a day after a suicide bomb attack killed two people elsewhere in the city, police said.
The latest explosion was outside a
mosque in Colombo's commercial area of Pettah, police said adding three people were taken to hospital.
Colombo National Hospital director Prasad Ariyawansa said three people admitted following the blast had rrunor injuries.
Two vehicles were damaged while shop windows in the area were shattered, police said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the government blamed Friday's attack on a suicide bomber from the Tamil Tiger separatist group, which lost its main political base in the island's north on Friday.
The defence ministry said government troops were moving further north of their positions in Kilinochchi in a bid to retake the strategically vital Elephant Pass, which was lost to theTigers in April 2000