Tamil Tiger rebels carried out a suicide attack on two Sri Lankan merchant ships bringing aid supplies to the northern Jaffna Peninsula yesterday, the Sri Lankan Defense Ministry said.
The Ruhuna and Nimalawa were targeted by three Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) vessels at 5:10am, the ministry said in a statement.
Sailors opened fire on the boats, destroying two and capturing one, navy spokesman DKP Dassanayke said. The LTTE hasn’t commented on the attack.
SOURCE: MOD GRAPHIC: AFP
One of the explosives-laden boats blew up, causing “considerable damage” to the hull of the Nimalawa, Dassanayke said.
The Nimalawa was sinking and the Ruhuna was damaged after they were rammed by rebel craft, Agence France-Presse reported.
Jaffna has to be supplied by sea and air because the main highway linking it to the south has been closed by fighting. The army is trying to destroy the LTTE’s last bases in the north and end the group’s 25-year battle for a separate Tamil homeland in the island.
Military officials in Colombo, claimed the ships attacked were civilian vessels, TamilNet said in its report on the incident, without elaborating. Fishermen in the area reported two explosions off Kaankeasanthu’rai harbor and rocket fire from army positions on the coast, it said.
Meanwhile, soldiers are now within 2km of the LTTE’s headquarters in the northern town of Kilinochchi.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said on Tuesday he told India that the army’s advance on Kilinochchi will continue, after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week raised concern over civilians caught in the fighting.
The government will carry out its responsibilities to protect civilians “to the fullest, especially with regard to the people who are temporarily displaced in the north due to the ongoing military operations to defeat terrorism,” Rajapaksa said.
More than 230,000 civilians have been displaced by the fighting in recent months, Tamil aid officials said. The number of people has been inflated, Rajapaksa said, adding there are about 150,000 civilians affected by operations in the northern Wanni region where Kilinochchi lies.
“We continue to supply food, even to the LTTE, because our responsibility is to the civilians, the farmers and the rural producers of the region who are trapped by the LTTE,” Rajapaksa said.
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