Bangalore, India — Sri Lankan troops captured a key rebel naval base in the country’s north and killed at least 30 Tamil Tiger fighters in the battle, the military said.

Soldiers penetrated the base in Vidattaltivu, a stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the northwestern Mannar region, earlier yesterday, a Ministry of Defense spokesman, Udaya Nanayakkara, said by telephone from the capital, Colombo. The military overran the rebel-held territory by deploying jet fighters and helicopters, the ministry said in a statement.

At least 30 LTTE members were killed in the town Monday by artillery and rocket fire, the ministry said. The LTTE’s military spokesman, Irasiah Ilanthirayan, didn’t answer telephone calls made to the rebels’ headquarters in Kilinochchi seeking comment.

The military is staging almost daily attacks on the rebels in the north and in June said it cut a main supply route for the LTTE when soldiers captured Mannar’s rice-producing area. The Tamil Tigers lost the eastern region to the army a year ago in their worst defeat in a 25-year fight for a separate Tamil homeland. The conflict has left more than 70,000 people dead.

Vidattaltivu is the main base for the Sea Tigers, the LTTE’s naval unit, according to the defense ministry.

The LTTE is designated a terrorist group by India, America, and the European Union. President Rajapaksa said this week his government is ready to hold talks with the LTTE if the rebels disarm.