Colombo: Sri Lanka's air force carried out airstrikes on LTTE artillery positions in the east on Wednesday. It is the first air raid since failed peace talks in Switzerland last weekend, the Defense Ministry said.
The LTTE quickly accused the government of mounting a military campaign, a charge the military denied.
Separately, suspected LTTE persons fatally shot a paramilitary guard in the northeast on Wednesday and a Tamil civilian was shot and killed in the Tamil city of Jaffna.
Military spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe said the air force had to "neutralise" artillery positions of the LTTE after they fired at military camps in eastern Sri Lanka.
"We have taken the targets," Samarasinghe said, indicating that the rebels' firing positions were destroyed.
The LTTE said Sri Lankan ground forces were also firing artillery at LTTE-held areas in the east, both of which showed the military was planning an offensive against them.
"The pattern of firing and bombing are indicative of a large scale military offensive being planned by the Sri Lankan military," the LTTE said on their TamilNet Web site.
The government's Media Center for National Security denied the charge and said the airstrike was limited to targets known to be rebel artillery bases.
Meanwhile, top LTTE envoys returned to Sri Lanka earlier on Wednesday from talks in Geneva, Switzerland.
The peace negotiations between the Sri Lankan government and LTTE envoys ended fruitlessly, without even an agreement on when to talk again.
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