LARGE LTTE ARMS CARRYING VESSEL DESTROYED BY SRI LANKA NAVY OFF DONDRA POINT

By Walter Jayawardhana

The Sri Lanka navy fired and destroyed a 70 meter long arms carrying vessel of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) off the Dondra point of the Southern province of Sri Lanka.
The vessel caught fire and was sinking slowly in the Indian Ocean about 190 nautical miles South of the port of Galle, a Navy spokesman said .

Fishermen in the area reported they heard a series of explosions in the sinking ship indicating that the LTTE vessel was carrying large hauls of explosives.

"We fired warning shots and they fired at us," said Commander D K P Dassanayake, a Navy spokesman .

"The ship is on fire and we can see a series of explosions,” he further said.Dasssanayaka said the confrontation took place in Sri Lanka’s territorial waters and away from international shipping lanes.
Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe, the Sri Lanka Army spokesman said ,"We repeatedly tried to check the identity of the vessel, but neither will it give one, nor will it stop forcing us to take action."

The incident took place one day after the LTTE tried to attack a humanitarian mission by all Western diplomats visiting the country’s Eastern Province was fired at by mortar fire by the LTTE.
The Ministry of Defense in a statement said, “The vessel sailing in deep seas around 185 nautical miles off 'Dondra Point' without a flag was detected by the Navy around 04.30 a.m. today(28). The ship had completely ignored the warning shots fired by the Navy patrol craft to stop. Instead the vessel had opened fire towards the Naval units. Subsequently the Navy retaliated with gun fire at the suspected vessel at about 08.30 a.m.”

It further said, “Naval intelligence units believe that the LTTE movement comprising a cluster of terrorists boats yesterday(27), to be a diversion plot to make it easier to the LTTE arms vessel, apprehended further down south today(28).”