Sri Lanka air force jets bombed rebel positions in the far north today while troops killed 49 suspected Tamil Tiger rebels in fresh fighting, the military said.
The air raids on the black Tiger or suicide-cadre training base, in rebel-held Kilinochchi in the north of the country, came a day after a suspected rebel suicide bomber killed the country's highways minister and 13 others attending a marathon race near the capital yesterday.
Air raids were also carried out at a rebel bunker line in the northern Jaffna peninsula, the air force said.
The Sri Lankan government has asked VIPs who face threats from the Tigers, and the general public, to be vigilant for more attacks due to rebel defeats in northern battle fronts.
"They (the rebels) are desperate," said Lakshman Hulugalla, director general at the Media Centre for National Security.
"With the defeat that the LTTE is having in north, they will try more. So we have asked politicians who have more threats to be more vigilant."
Yesterday's attack came amidst an offensive launched by the Sri Lankan military on the northern strongholds of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in which the military said 47 rebels and a soldier were killed. The military said two other rebels were killed in Monday fighting.
The rebels have in the past hit back with bombings in Colombo and in the relatively peaceful south of the island when they have come under military pressure in the north and east.
The Tigers, who are fighting for an independent state in the north and east of the island in a 25-year civil war that has killed an estimated 70,000 people, were not available for comment on the latest fighting, air raids and the suicide bombing.
The government and rebels make death toll claims that are rarely possible to verify independently.