At least two people were killed and 30 more were wounded in a suspected suicide attack near the Sri Lanka Air Force headquarters in the capital Colombo today, military and hospital officials said.
"At least two people were killed from the suicide attack near the Air Force headquarters," a spokesman at the Media centre for national security said, asking not to be named.
Hospital officials said 30 people were admitted with blast injuries.
Earlier today Sri Lankan troops captured the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels' headquarters town of Kilinochchi after months of fighting, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said.
Troops fought their way into Kilinochchi in one of the biggest blows for the rebels in years.
"We should pay the gratitude of the whole nation to those heroic soldiers who achieved that victory," Rajapaksa said in a nationally televised address.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who have been fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the east and north of the island for a quarter of a century, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Sri Lanka's military has been closing in on Kilinochchi since September.
Over the past month, it has been assaulting Tiger defences encircling the town and both sides have claimed to have inflicted ever higher death tolls on the other.
Sources from Rajapaksa's office earlier said that troops had entered Kilinochchi from two locations and that fighting with rebels was going on.
"Troops are inside the town and they are mopping up things here and there," said a military source who asked not to be identified.
State media said the military had surrounded Kilinochchi and that many rebels had fled.
Reuters