Sri Lankan troops have driven Tamil Tiger rebels from a key stronghold in the island's restive east, the military said on Wednesday, as the government probed how a rebel plane managed to bomb a base in the capital.
Troops seeking to evict Tiger fighters from the eastern district of Batticaloa found late on Tuesday a complex of bungalows they say was a hurriedly abandoned rebel headquarters whose occupants fled to nearby jungle.
"We have captured a Tiger headquarters in Kokkadichcholai, south of Batticaloa," said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe. "It was real luxury living. They had bungalows, conference halls." "They have withdrawn," he added. "When we went in, no one was there."
The Tigers, who have lost an estimated 600 square km (230 square miles) of terrain to military offensives in the east in recent months, were not immediately available for comment. The rout comes after a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber tried to blow up an army camp in Sri Lanka on Tuesday, killing nine people. The previous day, the rebels carried out their first air strike since fighting erupted in 1983.
The government has yet to explain how the Tigers managed to fly a light aircraft over the capital undetected, drop bombs and fly back to their northern stronghold without being shot down. But it says the Tiger air wing also represents a threat to South Asian neighbours like India.
Land and naval battles between the foes are now commonplace, and both sides repeatedly ignore calls from the international community to halt fighting that has killed around 68,000 people since 1983 - around 4,000 in the past 15 months alone. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon appealed yet again to both sides overnight.
"The Secretary-General is disturbed by the extensive and escalating violations of the ceasefire in Sri Lanka, which now includes an air attack this week by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)," a UN statement said on Tuesday.
"The Secretary-General appeals to the parties to the conflict to break this vicious cycle of attack and retaliation, which only leads to more bloodshed and victims," it added. "He urges them to return to the negotiating table as soon as possible, without preconditions."
President Mahinda Rajapakse's government says it is ready and willing to resume peace talks at any time, but is also pushing on with a declared drive to wipe out the rebels militarily.
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