Colombo, January 24: Tamil rebels have denied a claim by the Sri Lanka air force that they bombed a key rebel base in the northern part of the country regularly visited by Tamil leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
A defence ministry statement said on Wednesday the rebel holdout known as "X-Ray base" in Kilinochchi, 390 km northeast of the capital, was bombed Wednesday morning and the target was taken accurately.

The defence ministry said the air strike had been timed with a "special" activity of the rebels that was going to take place at the location, but it did not say whether the rebel leader was present at the time of the bombing.

But rebel spokesman Rasiah Illanthiriyan told the pro-rebel Tamilnet website that the government was "spreading false propaganda".

There was no independent confirmation about the bombing incident or the denial of the rebel spokesman.

Sri Lanka has vowed to kill the rebel leader who has since 1983 led the fight for establishment of a separate state for minority Tamils in the northern and eastern parts of the country.