Sri Lankan Army soldiers secure an explosion site Saturday in Colombo, Sri Lanka. A small bomb planted under a car exploded on a busy street in Colombo on Saturday, wounding three people, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.

Colombo, Sri Lanka ? Sri Lankan forces launched air strikes and ground assaults on ethnic Tamil rebels in the north Saturday, a day after dealing the separatists’ struggle for autonomy a devastating blow by capturing their de facto capital, the military said.

But in a sign the insurgents remained determined to battle on, a small bomb planted under a car exploded on a busy street in Colombo on Saturday, wounding three people, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said. The attack came a day after a suspected rebel suicide attacker blew himself up near air force headquarters in the city, killing three airmen.

Ethnic Tamil politicians, warning that the beleaguered rebels would simply turn to guerrilla warfare, appealed for an end to the fighting and for new talks to resolve the Indian Ocean island nation’s ethnic conflict.

“The noble need of the hour is an honest political solution. But it looks that we are far away from nobility,” said Mano Ganesan, an opposition Tamil lawmaker.

The rebels have been fighting since 1983 to create an independent homeland for Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalization by governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. The conflict has killed more than 70,000 people.

International mediators, including the United States, have long called for a political solution, saying that warfare will not resolve the underlying tensions between the two groups.

But a 2002 cease-fire collapsed amid new fighting three years ago and a new government offensive has squeezed the rebels into 620 square miles (1,605 square kilometers) of jungle, an area about the size of Los Angeles. President Mahinda Rajapaksa vowed to destroy the group this year.

In a major blow to the rebels’ battle for an independent state, the government captured their administrative capital of Kilinochchi on Friday. The rebels have come back from major defeats before to surprise government forces and retake territory, but many analysts said the unrelenting government offensive made such a comeback less likely this time.

On Saturday, troops turned their attention to two of the rebels’ remaining strongholds, Elephant Pass in the north and Mullaitivu in the northeast, defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said.

The troops will soon “liberate the whole Northern Province,” he said.

Elephant Pass is a strategic gateway to the government-controlled Jaffna peninsula, the cultural capital of the country’s Tamils and the northernmost point in the country. The army maintained a well-fortified base at the pass until the rebels captured it eight years ago, killing hundreds of soldiers.

Air force jets and attack helicopters on Saturday pounded a base used by the rebels’ naval wing, Tamil Tiger fortifications along the front lines and a group of rebels confronting troops advancing toward Mullaitivu, the military said.

Ground fighting continued throughout the day, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said, without providing details.

The rebels could not be reached for comment on the fighting.

The Tamil Tigers have been blamed for scores of bombings and suicide attacks and are listed as a terror group by the United States and European Union.

Tamils have long complained they are treated as second-class citizens, with Sinhalese used as the nation’s de facto official language. They also accuse the government of sending Sinhalese settlers into traditionally Tamil regions to overwhelm them demographically.

Ganesan, the Tamil lawmaker, said it would be unacceptable for the government to destroy the rebels and then try to resolve the historic tensions between the two communities.

N. Srikantha, a lawmaker from the pro-rebel Tamil National Alliance, said the government offensive would only push the rebels into a guerrilla war. His colleague, Kathirgamathamby Thurairatnasingham, called for an immediate end to the fighting.

“Even at this stage, the government must stop the war and start peace talks,” he said. “An effort to militarily solve the problem will only bring more destruction to all sides and this in turn may close all the chances for the Sinhalese and Tamil people to live as one country.”