Troops 'capture' Tamil rebel base

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Sri Lankan troops have driven Tamil Tiger rebels from a major base in the east of the island, the army says.

The army said it suffered no casualties in the assault late on Tuesday on the Kokkadicholai base near Batticaloa.

A military spokesman, Brig Prasad Samarasinghe, said the rebels retreated leaving behind an arsenal of weapons. There has been no word from the Tigers.

The military's reported success comes two months after the nearby rebel stronghold of Vakarai was captured.

Air attack

The upsurge in fighting has forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes around Batticaloa.

The BBC's Roland Buerk in Colombo says government forces have driven the rebels from towns and villages in the Eastern Province and are now trying to capture the remaining pockets still under Tiger control.

Meanwhile, the military are still investigating how the rebels managed to carry out an audacious air attack - their first - on a military base on Monday.

At least one light plane bombed an air force facility at the international airport complex near the capital, Colombo.

The rebels have been fighting for decades for a homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka.

Despite a ceasefire still being in place on paper, Sri Lanka has been sliding back towards civil war, with more than 4,000 people killed in the past 15 months, our correspondent says.

About 65,000 people have been killed and one million displaced by the fighting over the past 20 years.