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| Sunday, 15 June 2003 |
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12 Sea Tigers killed: LTTE vessel blown up By Ananth Palakidnar An LTTE vessel was blown up early yesterday morning after a confrontation with a Navy gunboat, 110 nautical miles east of Mullaitivu. All 12 men on board the ship who jumped overboard, when the vessel came under fire, are believed to have been killed. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission with the help of a naval craft launched search operation in the Mullaitivu waters a few hours after the incident. But no survivors were discovered even by late in the evening. Naval sources said the Navy gunboat 'SLNS Nandimithra' had intercepted the ship around dawn and fired warning shots when they received no response to their demand for identification. According to the media spokesperson of the SLMM, Agnes Bragadottir the incident took place around 6 a.m. and there was a big explosion when the vessel sank. It is not clear what caused the explosion and the subsequent sinking of the vessel. But a Ministry of Defence press release stated that the Navy had exercised its right to self defence and had taken retaliatory action when the LTTE vessel fired at them with medium calibre machine guns. The press release stated that the vessel suspected of carrying weapons, ammunition and war like equipments was intercepted by the naval troops on routine patrol in the northeast coast off Mullaitivu early yesterday morning. The vessel had been towing another small craft fitted with a medium calibre weapon. On being challenged to establish its identity and bona fides since it did not carry any flag or name, it had given the name as SOSHIN, registered in Belize, and that it was arriving from Surabayah. However the Navy, after checking with the authorities, had found the information to be false. Later the vessel had confirmed that it belonged to the LTTE and ignoring Naval commands to stop and had attempted to flee. Navy units had fired warning shots to prevent the vessel from escaping, when its movements became suspicious. The press release also stated that the Navy had observed a huge fireball around 6 am and that the vessel had sank at around 8.40 am . SLMM spokesperson said that the SLMM officials in Trincomalee and Colombo have launched separate investigations into the incident and are in contact with the Navy and the Sea Tigers in Kilinochchi. Meanwhile, a Tamilnet reported that a merchant vessel had been sunk by the Navy. |
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