Sri Lanka's navy attacked and destroyed three Tamil Tiger boats yesterday as the rebels launched their first assault on the main port of Colombo in 10 years, the defense ministry said.
A large blast aboard one boat suggested it was an explosives-packed suicide vessel, the military said.
After the three boats were spotted near a restricted zone, navy fast-attack boats sank one of the small fibreglass boats 6 nautical miles (11km) from Colombo harbor, the island's main cargo hub, and chased two others out to sea, sinking them as well, military officials reported.
"Navy foils an LTTE attack at Colombo harbour, one LTTE boat destroyed at 5:30 am," the defense ministry wrote in an initial statement on its Web site, before later reporting that the other two boats had also been sunk.
Residents reported hearing gunfire near the southern end of the port's high security zone.
"We don't know how many people were in the rebel boats, but the navy confirmed they destroyed all three which were headed towards the port," a police official said.
"We suspect they came to attack naval boats to create panic," military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said.
"Given the explosion, there must have been a lot of explosives aboard. It must have been a suicide boat," he said.
"The Tigers have been losing ground in the east, so they want to [prove] something here too," he said.
Samarasinghe said doors of several cargo containers aboard a nearby merchant ship had opened apparently because of the explosion, their contents spilling onto the deck, but said the ship itself was fine.
Tamil Tigers staged a kamikaze-style seaborne attack against the southern naval port of Galle in October, killing a sailor and a civilian and damaging several naval craft.
Rebels entered the Colombo port in April 1996, damaging foreign ships with rocket-propelled grenades, but the guerrilla craft was blown out of the water by port security men before they could cause major damage.
In July 2001, the Tigers staged an even bigger attack on the island's only international airport, destroying six civilian jets on the tarmac and blowing up over a dozen military aircraft parked at the adjoining air base.
Since then, the authorities have placed all ports in the island under tight security and banned fishing nearby to prevent guerrillas mingling among fishermen to stage attacks.
Police said there was confusion yesterday because authorities had also planned security maneuvers, with many believing the firing was part of a drill.
Tight security at the port was further stepped up with the employees allowed in after a thorough search, they said.
The incident came after the military captured the main rebel bastion of Vakarai in the island's east and stepped up operations against pockets of rebel resistance in the region.
Police also raised security in the island's south on Friday fearing revenge attacks, a police official said, adding that 38 people were detained for questioning.
More than 3,800 people have been killed in the past year in escalating violence despite a ceasefire that has been in place since February 2002.
Norwegian-backed peace talks ended in failure in October.
The island's drawn-out Tamil separatist conflict, led by the LTTE, has claimed over 67,000 lives since 1983 and political attempts to resolve the conflict have ended in failure.
Emboldened by the capture of a key Tamil Tiger stronghold in the east, Sri Lanka has vowed recently to go on the offensive to destroy the rebels' entire military machine in hopes it can finally win the war.
After the latest conflict, however, observers expect the Tamil Tigers to strike back. Analysts say the government and military are underestimating the rebels and expect the conflict to deepen, seeing no clear winner.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
RSS