Colombo: Sri Lankan attack helicopters bombed Tamil Tiger positions in the north of the island on Saturday, the military said, a day after ground forces seized the rebel headquarters town of Kilinochchi.

The military is now targeting the port town of Mullaitivu and other rebel strongholds in the north as it presses on with the deepest push into rebel-held areas to bring an end to the 25-year separatist war.

There has been no comment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on the fall of Kilinochchi, for long the center of the Tamil fight for an independent homeland in which more than 70,000 people have been killed.

"MI-24 helicopters attacked rebel positions west of Mullaitivu in support of ground troops," said a military source asking not to be named in line with national security policy.

Troops fought their way into the Tiger stronghold of Kilinochchi deep in the north Friday, in one of the biggest blows for the rebels in years.

Details of casualties from the fighting have not yet emerged and a pro-rebel web site www.tamilnet.com said the Tigers had moved their headquarters further northeast before the town fell.

"The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has entered a virtual ghost town," the website said. "The Tigers, who had put up heavy resistance so far, had kept their casualties as low as possible in the defensive fighting."

Sri Lanka military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanyakkara said troops were carrying out search and recovery operations in Kilinochchi town Saturday.

Security has been tightened across the island following a suicide bombing that killed three air force personnel in the capital Colombo shortly after President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced the fall of the de facto rebel capital.

Source : Reuters