Five Air Force personnel were killed and 18 injured in a predawn air and ground attack launched by Tamil Tiger rebels on Sri Lanka's north central Anuradhapura Air Force Base on Monday, defense officials said.

Defense officials said that a group of LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) rebels attacked the air base, about 200 km north of the capital Colombo, around 3:20 AM (2150 GMT) and two LTTE aircraft also dropped bombs at the air base.

Five Air Force personnel including two pilots were killed and 18 others were injured in the attack, defense officials said.

Two MI24 helicopters were damaged during the attack and the battle is still going on, said defense officials.

This is the first major attack launched by the LTTE on government targets after the military claimed in Mid-July that the Eastern Province had been free of rebels.

Claiming discrimination at the hands of the Sinhala majority, the LTTE has been fighting the government since the mid-1980s to establish a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in the north and east. More than 5,000 people have been killed in the new wave of violence sine the end of 2005, making the Norwegian brokered ceasefire agreement exist only on paper.

(Xinhua News Agency October 22, 2007)