Search the Internet          Tips

Sea and land battles shatter truce in Sri Lanka

K Venkataramanan in Colombo

Sri Lankan Air Force jets destroyed a large base of LTTE in Batticaloa district in the east on Thursday, inflicting heavy casualties, while the navy said its confrontation with the rebels on sea off Mullaithivu has left 15 'Sea Tigers' killed after the militants had sunk a naval gunboat and claimed to have captured another.

The jets destroyed the 'Beirut Base' of LTTE and returned safely to the base, a situation report from the defence ministry said. It did not have any casualty figures.

However, LTTE admitted only four deaths in the sea battle, while claiming that it captured a Dvora class gunboat of the Navy, apart from the one it sank.

The captured gunboat was stripped of its heavy weaponry and sunk, the rebels' clandestine radio and LTTE's website claimed.

The situation report said the naval headquarter's monitoring of wireless transmissions of LTTE revealed that it had lost 15 fighters, and 15 others were injured in the confrontation.

Five naval personnel were still missing, and presumed dead, it said.

The army, which has been involved in stray skirmishes against LTTE in the past few days, claimed that it had killed 10 rebels moving on a tractor at Kurichuddan in Mullaithivu district in the North on March 20.

The fierce seabattle came just two days before the unilateral ceasefire announced by LTTE from December 24 was due to expire on Friday.

LTTE's clandestine radio, Voice of Tigers, described the sea battle as "an unprovoked attack by Sri Lankan Navy aimed at disrupting the peace process."

Meanwhile, the LTTE has extended its unilateral ceasefire for a third time since they called a truce on December 24, but warned to terminate the truce if Sri Lanka failed to de-escalate the conflict.

In a statement posted on its website, the rebel group said it was pressing with the truce for another month till April 24, despite losing 133 combatants after calling halt to hostilities on the Christmas-eve.

PTI

Tell us what you think of this report