By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A Sri Lankan air force raid on a Tamil rebel training base in the island's north may have killed or wounded as many as 70 guerrillas, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday.
The raid on Tuesday, which the government said set off a series of explosions and fires at the base, was the latest in stepped up tit-for-tat attacks between the Tamil Tiger rebels and Sri Lankan forces.
"The base of the LTTE suffered major damage due to our bombing," said Lt. Col. Upali Rajapakse of the Defense Ministry's information center, citing visuals taken from the air. Rajapakse called the rebels by their acronym, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
"Generally 60 to 70 (guerrillas) live in such bases and we believe that they have died or (been) wounded due to the bombing and resulting explosions," Rajapakse said.