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COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's military said Thursday its warplanes had "completely destroyed" a rebel hideout near the northern town of Kilinochchi where Tamil Tiger leaders were meeting.
"Sri Lanka Air Force fighter jets targeted an LTTE (Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam) senior leaders' gathering at Jayapoor in Kilinochchi," the defence ministry said in a statement.
"Pilots confirmed that the location was completely destroyed," it added.
The pro-rebel TamilNet website, however, said the bombs hit a civilian area in Kilinochchi, the main town in the rebels' northern mini-state, wounding seven people and damaging nine houses.
It said the planes "bombed a civilian area with a mechanic workshop," and that Tamil Tiger rebels responded with anti-aircraft fire.
The air strike came hours after a truce, signed by the LTTE and the government in 2002, officially came to an end at midnight on Wednesday.
The Sri Lankan government pulled out of the ceasefire arguing the Tigers, who want to carve out an independent state in the north and east of the island, had only used the truce to re-arm.
Defence officials in Colombo have also spelled out their determination to kill LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, who has been leading a rebellion against the island's ethnic Sinhalese majority since 1972.
In November, Sri Lanka killed LTTE political chief S.P Thamilselvan in a bombing raid. - AFP/ac
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