COLOMBO, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan air force jets bombed a Tamil rebel naval base in the country’s north, killing at least nine guerrillas, military officials said on Friday.

"The air force attacked a Sea Tiger base on the eastern coast of the (country’s northern) Jaffna peninsula, near Pallai, on Thursday evening," military spokesman Brigadier Sanath Karunaratne told Reuters in Colombo.

"We have confirmed nine deaths" he said.

Pallai is a town near the army’s southernmost defences in the peninsula.

The air strikes came hours after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) blew up two military vehicles in northern Sri Lanka. Military officials said the death toll from Thursday’s rebel attacks had risen to 14.

Scores of troops and rebels have been killed in sporadic clashes this week even though LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran raised hopes of peace talks by offering on Monday to talk unconditionally to the government.

Prabhakaran dropped his previous pre-conditions of a truce and a troop pullout which the government had firmly rejected.

The LTTE has been fighting since 1983 for a separate state for minority Tamils in the country’s north and east.