COLOMBO, FEB 23: Twenty LTTE suicide bombers were reportedly killed and 51 Sri Lankan naval sailors and troops were found missing when a flotilla of LTTE suicide boats attacked and destroyed two naval vessels carrying over 100 security personnel.A naval landing craft with 58 troops and sailors on board sank last night in the attack which took place off northern Point Pedro coast, while another landing craft with 25 naval ratings carrying about 25 naval sailors was found missing, naval sources said here.
Of the total 83 men who were in the landing craft that sank, 57 including the commanding officer of the ship have been rescued and search was on for the remaining 26 men, they said.
Sources at the spokesman office of the defence here said it was estimated that about ten to 12 LTTE suicide boats took part in the attack and eight of them were believed to have been destroyed.
The boats came and rammed directly into the convoy of naval ships around 2015 hours last night, they said. Navy estimates thatover 20 LTTE men were killed in action.
State radio later said the fighter aircraft of the Sri Lankan airforce this morning attacked and destoryed an LTTE naval base at Chalai in the eastern coast from where the LTTE boats were believed to have come from.
The convoy was on its way from eastern Trincomalee to Kankesanthurai harbour in the northern Jaffna peninsula when it was attacked on Point Pedro coast. Most of the troops who were on board the two vessles were the men who were going to return to their duties in Jaffna after a holiday.
This was the fourth attack by the LTTE on the ships travelling to north and eastern coast in the past eight months. The rebels, after attacking and destroying a ferry used by the government to send the displaced Tamil refugees back to Jaffna in July last year, declared that they would not allow any food convoys to go to north.
A month later a Korean ship was attacked off Jaffna coast followed by another attack on a Chinese vessel while it was loading ilmanite sand atPolmudai harbour near Trincomalee.
After these attacks, the Sri Lankan navy began escorting cargo ships carrying food supplies to Jaffna.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
