COLOMBO (AP): Sri Lanka's air force carried out a series of attacks against Tamil Tiger rebels, including a heavy gun position and a guerrilla training camp, the military said Saturday.

It said jets bombed the gun position in the rebel headquarters of Kilinochchi on Friday and the training camp in Visvamadu village on Saturday.

Also Saturday, helicopters bombed a group of rebels who were trying to stop soldiers from reaching Paranthan, a strategic crossroads north of Kilinochchi, it said in a statement.

Pilots claimed success in all the attacks, the military said, without giving casualty details.

Rebel officials could not be reached for comment. It is difficult to verify battlefield reports because most reporters are barred from the war zone.

The government has vowed to crush the rebels to end their decades-old separatist war. It says its forces are closing in on Kilinochchi, the rebels' de facto capital, while other troops are advancing toward the rebel stronghold of Mullaitivu on the northeastern coast.

The rebels have been forced to give up large swathes of territory in heavy battles over the past several months.

The Tamil Tigers have fought a 25-year civil war to carve out an independent state for the country's ethnic minority Tamils, who have suffered marginalization by successive governments controlled by ethnic Sinhalese.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.