Two aircraft of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels bombed government troops' positions in the northeastern Welioya area early Sunday morning but failed to cause any casualty, said the military.
Military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said two light aircraft of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) dropped three bombs at the Forward Defense Line of the troops in Welioya, about 280 km northeast of the capital Colombo, around 1:43 a.m. (2013 GMT Saturday).
Nanayakkara said the air raids caused no casualty among government troops or civilians and no property damage was recorded.
The spokesman said the two aircraft left the area after dropping the bombs and the troops fired at the aircraft using whatever weapons they had.
Welioya is one of the major battlefields between the troops and the rebels in the north.
The LTTE said the rebels confronted Army units who launched a large-scale offensive push in the area on Saturday.
The bombing came four days after a fierce battle between the two sides in the northern Jaffna peninsula with more than 200 people being killed in both sides.
The pre-dawn air raid was the rebels' fifth aerial attack after making its first-ever air raid on March 26, 2007.
Its first attack was against a major airbase near Colombo, leaving three airmen killed and 19 wounded.
On October 22, 2007, the LTTE aircraft supported a pre-dawn commandos-type assault on an airbase at Anuradhapura, about 212 km north of Colombo, resulting in the damage to at least eight aircraft.
Having taken over control of the Eastern Province last July, Sri Lanka's security forces are currently battling LTTE rebels in the north with an aim to crush them before the end of 2008.
Claiming discrimination at the hands of the majority Sinhalese government, the LTTE has been fighting against the government since the mid-1980s to establish an independent homeland for Tamil minorities, resulting in the death of more than 70,000 people in the island.
Military sources said more than 3,000 combatants have been killed from both sides so far this year.
(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2008)
