| COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s air force bombed Tamil Tiger targets near the rebels’ northern stronghold and in the island’s northwest on Thursday, the military said, the second consecutive day of air raids in the wake of failed peace talks. The Tigers said the air force dropped four shells near a hospital around 3 km from the rebels’ political offices in their northern stronghold of Kilinochchi, destroying a house and killing its five civilian occupants. Nordic truce monitors confirmed the site of the bombing, which was just 2.5 km from their own offices and close to the hospital. It was the closest that air force bombs have fallen to the rebel nerve centre since a 2002 ceasefire. “The house was smashed. A mother, a father, two children and a grandmother were all killed,” Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said by telephone from Kilinochchi. “This is state terrorism,” he added. The military said it had targeted two Tiger military targets it viewed as threats to national security. |