Thaindian News

Colombo, Oct 3 (IANS) The office of a top leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tiger Eelam’s (LTTE) in Kilinochchi was Friday bombed by Sri Lankan fighter jets, a military spokesperson said.The Sri Lankan Air Force carried out two successive strikes, hitting the main office complex of “high profile LTTE leader Nadesan”, said Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara. The LTTE’s military base a short distance away was bombed simultaneously.

“The main office complex of terror leader Nadesan was located 500 m west of Triarukulam (in the northern town of Kilinochchi) and it was engaged around 9.20 a.m,” Wing Commander Nanayakkara told IANS.

He said the building complex had been extensively damaged.

It is not known whether rebel leader Nadesan was in the building at the time of the attack.

Nadesan, who had briefly served in the Sri Lankan police service, joined the LTTE decades ago and was made head of the “LTTE police force” by elusive rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

He was later appointed as the political wing head of the outfit after S.P. Thamilselvan was killed in an air raid in November 2007.

There was no immediate reaction from the LTTE.

The defence ministry said the air strikes were launched “based on real-time information acquired through continuous ground and air surveillances conducted in these areas”.

It said troops advancing from various directions were just 3.5 km away from Kilinochchi town, about 350 km north of the capital Colombo, and were determined to capture the rebels’ “administrative capital” soon.

The LTTE has been fighting the Sri Lankan government to carve out a separate state for Tamils in the northern and eastern part of the island for the past three decades. Thousands have died in fighting between the LTTE and the military since late 2005.