COLOMBO, Sept 13: Sri Lanka’s air force bombed a well-fortified Tamil Tiger rebel compound in their northern stronghold on Saturday, while a rebel ambush killed a policeman in the east, the military said.

Pilots said the bombing of the compound in Kilinochchi district was successful, the military said. It gave no details of damage or casualties.

Meanwhile, rebels attacked a police guard post in eastern Batticaloa district on Saturday, killing a policeman, the military said in a statement.

Sporadic clashes on Friday along the northern front lines killed nine Tamil Tigers and one soldier, it added.

With most of the lines of communication to the north cut, it was not possible to reach rebel officials for comment. It is difficult to verify statements by either side because most journalists are banned from the war zone.

The government has increased its attacks on the Tamil Tigers’ northern stronghold in recent months and has seized a number of rebel camps and villages. It has vowed to retake all rebel territory by the end of the year.

The violence has forced about 160,000 people to leave their homes.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has told thousands of people living in its capital “without any valid reason” to return to their villages, calling them a national security threat, a state-run newspaper said on Saturday.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse told the Daily News that thousands arrive in Colombo each month from other parts of the war-torn nation, many of them ethnic Tamils fleeing fighting in the north.

“I prefer most of these people who had come from other areas to Colombo and suburbs and who are staying here without any valid reason to go back to their areas,” Rajapakse was quoted in the state-run Daily News.

“It is an immense problem for the security forces to provide security. The LTTE (rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) mingles with these people to infiltrate these areas,” he said.

Colombo came under intense pressure from international human rights activists in June last year, when hundreds of Tamils were evicted from the city and told to return to their villages, some in conflict areas.

They were later bused back to the city after the Supreme Court intervened and rapped the government.

Rajapakse, who is President Mahinda Rajapakse’s younger brother, said 6,950 people had come to Colombo in August alone and are now living in lodges and houses. He called the situation “abnormal” and “alarming.” “If some people have come from the east or any other place to Colombo and if they are staying here without any reason they should go back to their places,” he said.

“That is the most preferable thing.” Tamils have to obtain police permits to travel to the rest of the country under a system put in place to prevent the separatist rebels infiltrating the capital following a series of attacks.

The Tamils, mainly from the north and east, come to the capital in the hope of obtaining passports to travel abroad for employment or secure political asylum overseas.—AP