Colombo: At least 30 people were killed when Tamil Tiger rebels on Thursday destroyed two gunboats in a suicide attack launched against a Sri Lankan Naval patrol, sparking a major sea battle off the island's northern waters, the military said.
Military spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe said the Navy and the Air Force together also destroyed about 20 boats of the Tamil rebels, but casualty figures were not immediately available.
The Navy intercepted a cluster of Tiger boats and went into action, but a rebel vessel packed with explosives rammed into one Dvora gunboat, which sank, the spokesman said.
A second Dvora gunboat was attacked by the Tigers, he said adding it later caught fire and was destroyed.
Samarasinghe said the Navy was escorting a bigger vessel known as 'Green Ocean' transporting 300 soldiers to the Jaffna peninsula when the sea battle erupted.
The military deployed helicopter gunships and supersonic jets to attack a Tiger flotilla, he added.
There was no immediate word from the Tigers about the sea battle.
Comments
0 comment