Sri Lanka Captures Rebels' Capital

Afterward, Bomber Attacks Near Air Force Headquarters

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Jan. 3 -- Government forces captured the Tamil Tigers' de facto capital in northern Sri Lanka on Friday, dealing a devastating blow to the rebels' quarter-century fight for an independent state, the president said.

The military pushed on with its attack Saturday, bombing the port town of Mullaitivu, the rebels' last major stronghold, as well as other positions in the north of the island.

But in a sign that the rebels retained their ability to strike back, a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide attacker on a motorcycle detonated a bomb Friday near the air force headquarters in Colombo, killing two airmen, police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekara said.

The attacker, who was targeting troops as they left work, wounded 30 other people, including nine airmen, Gunasekara said.

The blast punctured the festive mood that swept the capital after President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced the fall of Kilinochchi.

"Our brave and heroic troops have fully captured Kilinochchi, which was considered the main bastion of the LTTE," he said in a nationally televised speech, referring to the rebels by their formal name, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. "For the last time, I call upon the LTTE to lay down their arms and surrender."

Across Colombo, people lighted firecrackers, danced in the streets and waved Sri Lankan flags.

Kilinochchi held great symbolic value as the center of the Tamil Tigers' de facto state, and its capture by government forces for the first time in a decade is expected to badly damage the rebels' morale. The rebels used the town as their headquarters and set up entities there for an independent state, such as a police force, courts and tax offices.

But the rebel-affiliated TamilNet Web site said the Tamil Tigers had moved their headquarters farther to the northeast before the town fell. Kilinochchi does not lie at a key crossroad or house major rebel bases or armories, and military analysts said its strategic value was not great.

Rebel officials were not immediately available for comment, but they have said in the past that they would fight on even if Kilinochchi fell.

The rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland in the north and east for Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalization by successive governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. The conflict has killed more than 70,000 people.

The United States, the European Union and others have called for a political solution to the crisis, saying that warfare will not resolve the underlying tensions between the Tamil and Sinhalese communities that led to the violence in the first place.