Tamil Rebels Kill 200 at Sri Lankan Base : Asia: As many as 300 soldiers and sailors are missing after military installation is overrun.

In one of their most stunning victories, Tamil rebels overran a military base in northern Sri Lanka before dawn Thursday, killing more than 200 soldiers and sailors, military officers said.

As many as 300 servicemen were missing after fleeing the base near the rebel-held Jaffna Peninsula, the military said.

Other soldiers from the base were trying to regroup, the military said.

“It is difficult to get a head count because we are coming under constant fire from the rebels,” Defense Secretary Hamilton Wanasinghe said. “Reinforcements can’t land because the militants are firing at the helicopters carrying troops.”

More than 50 Tamil rebels were killed in the attack, the military said.

Rebels from the Tamil minority have been fighting for an independent homeland in northern and eastern Sri Lanka for 10 years. More than 18,000 people have been killed. The majority Sinhalese control the military and government in Sri Lanka, an island nation southeast of India.

The victory came after a bad year for the rebels, who had lost territory and were being encircled in Jaffna. Many civilians, who had supported the rebels, had begun to flee rebel-held territories as fewer supplies reached the areas.

Government troops had used the base to attack boats carrying rebels from the Jaffna Peninsula across a lagoon to other parts of Sri Lanka.

About 115 soldiers were killed in September during a military offensive in the same area to prevent Tamil rebels from using the lagoon to ferry arms and food supplies.

A rebel spokesman said that Thursday’s attack was to prevent the government from surrounding the peninsula.

“This foils the government’s intention of making a siege of Jaffna,” Lawrence Thillakar said in a telephone interview from Paris.

Using rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and machine guns, the rebels attacked the base from the ground and from motorboats.

They captured at least six navy boats, weapons and radar equipment used to track rebel movements, the military said. Four navy boats were reported destroyed.

Sri Lankan soldiers fought back with fighter planes, helicopter gunships and howitzers in a desperate bid to defend the base, the government said.