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| Sri Lanka | |
| Sri Lanka fears rise as sea battle kills 67 | |
| 2006-05-11 | |
At least 17 Sri Lankan sailors and 50 Tamil Tiger rebels were reported killed Thursday in a fierce sea battle off the island's north - an action that possibly took the country closer to a return to civil war.
Other military officials said the transporter sustained light damage and was sheltering in Indian waters after the confrontation. According to Sri Lanka's military, it sank five rebel boats in immediate retaliation for the sinking of the navy craft, which happened as a convoy moved army personnel from Point Pedro in the northern peninsula of Jaffna to the northeastern port of Trincomalee. Other reports were that the navy had lost two of its fast-attack craft. Sri Lanka's air force scrambled fighter jets and helicopter gunships to the area in the worst outbreak of trouble since a 2002 cease-fire halted two decades of civil war that claimed at least 60,000 lives. "The air force has bombed our territory, but nothing has fallen here," said rebel media coordinator Daya Master from Kilinochchi town. "We have no word on casualties yet." Aid workers in Kilinochchi said they had heard one loud explosion nearby, though the sea battle was about 50 kilometers from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's northern stronghold. "Our monitors saw several Tiger boats attacking the troop transporter and firing," said Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for the unarmed Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission. "We have a monitor on that boat." Olafsdottir also said two of the government's Israeli-built fast-attack boats had been sunk. The Tigers, who are fighting for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in the north and east, have withdrawn from peace talks indefinitely, warning ominously on Tuesday that Sri Lanka was moving towards the "fringes" of war. In a separate incident in the island's restive eastern district of Trincomalee, the military said rebels had fired mortars and bursts of gunfire at a navy post but no one had been hurt. The violence comes after a rash of attacks in April, one of the bloodiest months of the island's four-year cease- fire, and just a day after a Japanese peace envoy left the island after an abortive bid to coax the Tigers to return to peace talks. Bombings and land and sea clashes have killed more than 200 people in the past month. The Tigers and the majority- Sinhalese government each accuse the other of ethnically motivated attacks. | |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 At least 17 Sri Lankan sailors and 50 Tamil Tiger rebels were reported killed Thursday in a fierce sea battle Not JutLand for sure - but maybe biggest since Praying Mantis? |
| Posted by: 6 2006-05-11 16:13 |
| #2 Well, Jutland it wasn't. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2006-05-11 14:50 |
| #1 Sounds like the Navy wasn't maintaining very effective war watches on the escorts, though there's not enough detail in the story to say for sure. |
| Posted by: Mike 2006-05-11 14:41 |