Relentless fighting kills 41 in Sri Lanka - military

By Ranga Sirilal

COLOMBO (Reuters) - At least 40 people were killed for a second straight day in the Sri Lankan military's push into rebel Tamil Tiger territory, the military said on Friday, a day after a failed suicide attack targeting a minister.

Air force jets also kept up relentless strikes on Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) targets, part of a concentrated seek-and-destroy strategy to gradually regain rebel-held ground while wiping out as many guerrillas as possible.

The battle is now concentrated around Kilinochchi, the Tigers' headquarter town 330 km (205 miles) north of the capital, Colombo. It is a strategic and symbolic prize for President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government.

"Jets attacked an LTTE senior leader's hideout, a command centre and a Black Tiger camp in Kilinochchi this morning," air force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said. The Black Tigers are the LTTE's elite unit, groomed for suicide missions.

The Tigers later said that the jets had targeted civilians.

"Two civilians including a schoolteacher were killed and seven more wounded in an air strike this morning," the LTTE said in an e-mailed statement.

A later raid hit rebels gathered near the northwestern port of Nachikkudah, another frontline area, the air force said.

The LTTE says it is fighting to create a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's minority Tamils, who have complained of marginalisation by successive governments led by the Sinhalese majority since independence from Britain in 1948.