CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

SRI LANKA NAVY SINKS TWO SEA TIGER BOATS CLOSE TO MANNAR KILLING SIX

By Walter Jayawardhana

The Sri Lanka military said two Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE) boats were sunk off the country’s North Western coast close to Mannar following a brief sea battle killing six Sea Tiger cadres in the boats.

The battle occurred 4.30 p.m. , Saturday July 28 when the Tiger boats were headed towards Wedi-thala-thivu close to Mannar, the Sri Lanka Navy said.

Navy spokesman Commander D.K.P.Dassanayaka said the fighting occurred about 200 kilometer off the North Western coast where the small LTTE boats were mingling among the Indian fishing boats to escape the naval craft after apparently suspecting the military craft were after them.
When the military craft was reaching towards the cluster of boats the Tiger craft started escaping towards Wedi-thala-thivu.

The Sri Lanka naval craft then fired warning shots indicating the boats should stop. But instead of stopping the Tiger boats started firing rocket propelled grenades towards them, the navy spokesman said.

The navy fired at the boats and sunk them. Only six bodies were seen. Although 10 Sea Tigers were counted on the boats initially four were unaccounted for. The Sea Tigers engage a large number of boats to attack Sri Lankan naval craft and to smuggle weapons which are being brought by the LTTE cargo ships to the Indian Ocean from where smaller boats are engaged to bring them in to North Western coast mostly.

During the initial years of the Ceasefire Agreement ships came close to Eastern coast of Sri lanka to unload heavy guns and dismantled aircraft , at a time when the Ranil Wickremesinghe government had given strict orders not to provoke them. The LTTE has completely lost the Eastern coast now for its smuggling activities.

The LTTE has started using the Western coast now for that purpose instead. The Indian trawler Sri Krishna was sunk in the Maldivian waters recently while being engaged in gun running activities where they intended to use North Western sea coast for that purpose, according to intelligence sources.

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