Sri Lanka: second day of airstrikes on Tamil rebels

Sri Lanka: second day of airstrikes on Tamil rebels

The Tigers said the airstrikes near a key rebel stronghold showed that the government was on a war footing, while the country's president said he remained committed to the country's 2002 cease-fire accord, despite Thursday's bus attack.

Air force jets dropped bombs and the army lobbed artillery shells into the area around the northern town of Kilinochchi, said Thorfinnur Omarsson, the spokesman for the Nordic mission monitoring the oft-violated 2002 truce, the AP reports.

Omarsson said that throughout Thursday and early Friday Sri Lankan soldiers and sailors had also shelled Tiger bases near the eastern ports of Batticaloa and Trincomalee. Earlier reports indicated the government attacks were limited to rebel-held areas in the north.