LTTE planes attack Colombo, 27 hurt

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's military said on Friday at least 27 people had been wounded when two Tamil Tiger rebel planes raided the capital Colombo and bombed the country's tax headquarters.

Defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said at least 27 people were wounded by the bombing, in the capital's Fort area.

He said Sri Lankan forces had shot down one of the planes, which had crashed within the territory of the international airport just outside Colombo, and found the body of the pilot.

Sri Lanka shut the island's only international airport and diverted flights to India after Tiger rebels carried out an air attack on the capital, an official said.

The attack amounts to a major embarrassment for Sri Lanka's government, which had claimed to have destroyed all the rebels' hidden runways and rendered its small air wing powerless.

A major army offensive in recent months has boxed the rebels' main fighting force into a small strip of land in the country's north.