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Fierce clashes erupt between Sri Lankan navy and Tigers
A fierce sea clash erupted between Sri Lankas navy and Tamil Tiger rebels off the countrys east coast overnight, the military said Sunday as two days of ground battles killed 28 combatants in the north and east. The sea battle broke out when a flotilla of 15 rebel boats tried to attack naval boats patrolling off Kallarawa, a fishing village in the eastern Trincomalee district on Saturday night, said navy spokesman Cmdr DKP Dassanayake. He said the battle lasted nearly an hour, and that the insurgents were believed to have suffered heavy casualties before fleeing. Tiger rebels said Sunday they lost two fighters during a three-hour sea battle with the Sri Lankan Navy. Three Dvora FACs (fast-attack craft) were damaged in the (sea) clash. Two Sea Tigers were killed in action, the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said in a statement.. Hours earlier, a ground battle between navy sailors and rebels in Kuchchaveli village near Trincomalee left three insurgents dead, Dassanayake said. Later, troops recovered three rebel bodies along with rifles, bombs and detonators. Meanwhile, soldiers ambushed a group of Tamil guerrillas riding on tractors Friday near the eastern area of Thoppigala, killing 15 people. The attack came hours after rebels killed six soldiers in the region in a mortar attack, military spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe said. Government forces have cleared the Tamil Tiger guerrillas from much of eastern Sri Lanka, but have been struggling to seize the eastern rebel bastion of Thoppigala for 14 years. The army began what it called a final push into the area in late April and said recently it hoped to rout the rebels by early next week. However, previous claims of imminent victory have proven premature. In other violence, insurgents attacked soldiers in the northern Vavuniya district Friday, but troops fought back and killed two guerrillas, the Defense Ministry said. Hours later, soldiers observed armed rebels moving across a defensive line in the northeastern Welioya region and fired mortar rounds at them, killing two insurgents, the ministry said. A spokesman for the rebels did not answer repeated telephone calls from The Associated Press on Saturday. Posted by: Fred 2007-07-09 |
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