Sri Lanka navy says sinks rebel vessel in sea clash

COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s navy sank a Tamil Tiger
vessel approaching a military base at the island’s northern tip
overnight, naval officials said on Saturday.

There were no immediate details of casualties in the latest
of a rash of clashes which have raised the spectre of a return
to civil war.

“The Navy fired and destroyed one Tamil Tiger boat
approaching Kankesanturai in Jaffna (peninsular),” navy
spokesman Commander D.K.P Dassanayake said early on Saturday.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were not
immediately available for comment.

The incident comes just days after a flotilla of around 20
rebel boats attacked two small navy vessels near a northwestern
base on Monday in an attack that killed five sailors and at
least one Tamil Tiger.

It also follows a spray of ambushes, shootings and military
clashes culminated in the assassination of one of Sri Lanka’s
top generals by a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber, who
rammed his motorbike into an army convoy near the capital.

A wave of attacks on the island has now killed more than
700 people so far this year, straining a 2002 ceasefire between
the military and the Tigers to breaking point.

Sri Lanka’s tortuous peace process is deadlocked and
teetering on collapse. The government and rebels are sharply
divided over the Tigers’ demands for a separate homeland for
minority Tamils in the north and east.

Some diplomats fear it is just a matter of time before a
war that has already killed more than 65,000 people since 1983
reignites. Others feel neither side is ready for a full-blown
conflict, and while constantly provoking the military, the
Tigers do not want to be seen to start an all-out war.

Nonetheless, the Tigers say they are ready to fight a war
if one is thrust upon them by the government.

They told Reuters last month they would resort to all
strategies — including the suicide bombings — if war resumes.