SRI LANKAN Tamil Tiger rebel planes bombed two oil facilities near the capital yesterday, causing minor damage and tripping air defenses that plunged the city into darkness, the air force said.

Hospital officials said six people were admitted for injuries after the attacks, and two were in intensive care.

The early morning attack was only the third air strike ever by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, who are fighting for an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils in the north and east of the Indian Ocean island.

Two bombs landed in an area called Muthurajawela, north of the city, one damaging a water pipeline at a crude oil pumping station and the other striking a fire hut at a Shell gas facility, he said.

A customer service representative at Shell Company of Sri Lanka, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, said the bomb struck at Shell terminals, which are part of the port.

Two other rebel bombs landed near the Kolonnawa oil refining facility five kilometers north of Colombo, the military said.

After the attack, air force jets struck back, bombing targets in the northern rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi, the defense ministry said. Air force planes also hit Tiger targets about an hour before the air strike near Colombo, it said.(SD-Agencies)