The official said the strategy was to clear the east from the clutches of the Tigers and than move towards the north. "Our strategy of ousting the LTTE from the east has been fairly successful so far. We do not agree with the thesis that it is an un-winnable war."

The Defence Ministry argued that it was foolish on the part of any one to argue that the war on terrorism could not be won More... Discuss this story Published: Tue Mar 13 18:19:51 EDT 2007

The air raid comes as relief agencies warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in the east, where tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in recent weeks due to an escalation of fighting.

At least eight rebels, including two senior guerrillas, were killed when Kfir and MiG-27 jets strafed the base in Thoppigala on Monday, air force Group Captain Ajantha Silva said on Tuesday. He declined to say why news of the raid was withheld for 24 hours.

The air force bombed the base again on Tuesday amid signs the rebels were regrouping, Silva said. He had no immediate details of damage or casualties.

The rebels, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, confirmed Monday's raid, but denied there were any casualties.

``Yes, there was some air movement and some sort of bombing, but we suffered no casualties. The report is negative,'' spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan said from Kilinochchi, the de-facto rebel capital in the north.

The Thoppigala camp serves as a major training base for the rebels. It is considered one of the last major LTTE redoubts in the east as Sri Lankan forces have carried out several ground and air attacks over the past year and captured territory.

Aid agencies have expressed concern and alarm at the rising number of refugees, mostly Tamils, fleeing villages in the east that have come under government fire.

``As fighting continues, we are also worried for the safety and protection of all civilians, as reports indicate that shelling is occurring from and to highly populated areas,'' the Inter Agency Standing Committee, a group of U.N. and private relief agencies, said Monday in a statement.

More than 40,000 people have fled their homes in eastern Batticaloa over the past few weeks seeking shelter in nearby government-controlled areas where an estimated 60,000 people are already packed into refugee camps, the International Committee of the Red Cross has said.

Separately, security forces discovered two roadside bombs each weighing 10 kilograms (22.05 pounds) in the northern Jaffna peninsula, the military said in a statement. The bombs which can be triggered by remote control, are a favored weapons of the Tamil Tigers.

The military also recovered a suicide belt from the abandoned house on Monday, the statement said.

The rebels have been fighting since 1983 to create a separate state for the ethnic Tamil minority in the north and northeast, following decades of discrimination by the Sinhalese majority.

About 65,000 people died in the conflict before the government and rebels signed a Norwegian-brokered cease-fire in 2002.

Renewed fighting has killed about 4,000 people since the truce faltered in late 2005, European cease-fire monitors say. Discuss this story Published: Tue Mar 13 07:50:03 EDT 2007