Tigers blow up navy ship as offensive goes on<\/p>\n
COLOMBO (AFP): A Tamil Tiger suicide squad blew up a navy ship
\nin northern Sri Lanka yesterday in an attack which claimed the
\nlives of three sailors and ten rebel cadres, the military said.<\/p>\n
As a major government ground offensive entered its second
\nweek, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) set off two
\nblasts, crippling the 1, 500-ton Edithara at the Kankesanthurai
\nnavy facility blocking the entrance to the port, a military
\nsource said.<\/p>\n
\"The first blast was just outside the port and the ship was
\nbeing brought in when the second one went off,\" a navy source
\nsaid, adding the cargo of the Edithara had been unloaded when it
\nwas hit first.<\/p>\n
Fifteen sailors were also wounded, he added.<\/p>\n
Tigers divers had swum up to the boat, having jumped from four
\nLTTE boats, which then engaged navy forces in an attempt to break
\ninto the harbor, located on the northern tip of the LTTE-
\ndominated Jaffna peninsula, the military said. Three boats were
\ndestroyed in the diversionary assault while the fourth escaped.<\/p>\n
A military statement said LTTE radio transmissions intercepted
\nby the security forces showed that at least 10 members of the
\nsuicide squad, known as Black Sea Tigers, were killed in the
\nKamikaze-style operation.<\/p>\n
The daring attack came as the army's biggest offensive yet,
\ncode-named Leap Forward, entered its second week yesterday with
\ntroops consolidating in a 78-square kilometer area captured
\ninside the Jaffna peninsula.<\/p>\n
The LTTE's clandestine radio, the Voice of Tigers, yesterday
\nclaimed responsibility for the attack but said details were still
\nawaited.<\/p>\n
The LTTE ended six months of peace talks on April 19 by
\ncarrying out an identical suicide strike on the northeastern
\nTrincomalee port, blasting two navy gunboats and killing nearly
\n20 people.<\/p>\n
The Tiger radio yesterday announced that 63 of their cadres
\nwere killed during Friday's counter-offensive to retake seven
\nvillages lost to the army which has deployed 10,000 troops in
\nOperation Leap Forward.<\/p>\n
Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran ordered the retaliatory
\noffensive code- named \"Leap of the Tiger\" to dislodge the army
\nfrom their new positions but military spokesman Sarath Munasinghe
\ndenied any pull out.<\/p>\n
The casualties in Friday's attack led by Tiger suicide units
\nwere listed as 33 soldiers killed and 95 wounded in action. The
\narmy claimed killing 62 rebels, one less than admitted by the
\nLTTE. Tigers claimed killing 100 troops.<\/p>\n
The army defense lines had moved within six kilometers of
\nJaffna town, the symbol of Tamil separatism and the capital of
\nLTTE's fiefdom, where they have their own civil administration.<\/p>\n
Travellers from the embattled region told reporters at the
\nnorthern town of Vavuniya on the mainland that black flags went
\nup in Jaffna and the LTTE's public address systems played sombre
\nmusic to mourn the 63 Tigers who died Friday.<\/p>\n
An LTTE truck loaded with explosives blew up accidentally at
\nThavady in Jaffna, killing several senior LTTE cadres and
\nwounding civilians but the exact casualties were not immediately
\nknown, travellers said.<\/p>\n
Defense analysts said there was an upsurge in rebel suicide
\nattacks probably because the guerrillas feared an imminent
\nmilitary onslaught to take the densely populated town of Jaffna.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/tigers-blow-up-navy-ship-as-offensive-goes-on-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}