Sri Lankan air force bombs Tiger positions for second day

Sri Lanka's air force bombed suspected Tamil Tiger positions in northeast Sri Lanka on Thursday for a second day after the rebels allegedly blocked an irrigation canal, military officials said.

The government accuses the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of blocking water supplies to farmland in Trincomalee.

Military spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe said that the attacks on Thursday were aimed at a Tiger airstrip north of the naval port of Trincomalee.

The government accused the LTTE of blocking a sluice gate in the Verugal area and depriving water that flows into thousands of Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamil villages.

"The limited air strikes were aimed at dislodging the terrorists at Verugal area where they were gathered blocking sluice gates," a defense ministry statement said Wednesday.

The LTTE rebels control parts of the eastern province and have seized areas out of government control in the long running ethnic separatist armed conflict.

More than 64,000 people have died in the conflict since the mid 1980s.

Source: Xinhua