Tigers Hit Main Naval Port as Battle Heats Up
02/08/2006| IslamWeb
Tamil Tigers shelled Sri Lanka’s main navy base yesterday, killing four sailors and wounding 30, while military warplanes pounded rebel positions as a bloody battle for control of an irrigation canal entered a seventh day.
The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) used 122-mm artillery to target the base at Trincomalee as a ferry carrying 800 troops was about to dock there, military officials said.
“The ‘Jetliner’ ferry was making its way to the harbour when the... attack started,” a military official said.
He said five suspected rebel boats pursued the ferry transporting troops returning home on leave, but the navy was able to beat them back while ground troops fired multi-barrel rocket launchers to neutralise rebel positions.
“Four naval ratings were killed and about 30 injured,” the military official said. “Several buildings caught fire and we are putting them out.”
At least 36 explosions were heard from within the naval compound next to the main Trincomalee harbour and also damaged a navy gunboat, official sources said, adding that initially they believed the Tigers were firing mortar bombs.
Warplanes swung into action for the second time yesterday following the attack on the base, after attacking Tiger positions earlier in the day in the same region, the defence ministry said. Officials said Israeli-built Kfir jets had carried out bombing sorties around dawn yesterday near the Maavilaru irrigation canal in Trincomalee district which the rebels blocked 10 days ago, sparking bitter fighting. The ground offensive against the Tigers was at its bloodiest on Monday claiming at least 67 lives on both sides and making a mockery of a ceasefire in force since February 2002.
“We can’t say how long it will take for us to open the sluice gates,” government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters. “We have to move very cautiously.” The military has said it suspects the area is heavily mined and booby-trapped. Rambukwella said troops were engaged in “consolidation” yesterday while continuing long-range artillery attacks against Tiger targets.
On Monday night the rebels were held responsible for blowing up a bus transporting reinforcements to the Maavilaru area, killing 19 soldiers. It was the biggest single loss for security forces in a roadside bombing since they entered into the truce with the LTTE. Despite the new surge in violence, international truce monitors said they still believed that neither side wanted to re-ignite a war that has claimed over 60,000 lives in the past three decades. “I still don’t believe in a full-scale war,” Ulf Henriccson, the retired Swedish general who leads the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), told journalists on Monday.
He suggested the fighting which has raged in recent days could ultimately lead to new negotiations between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE. The government says its offensive is a “humanitarian” operation to free up the Maavilaru waterway and get water to thousands of needy farmers.
However truce monitor Henricsson criticised the government action which he said could damage the small dam at Maavilaru. The Tigers have accused the government of pushing the nation to the brink of war with the new offensive, and have also vowed to resist any attempts to retake the waterway.
In a further threat to the truce, the LTTE has demanded that monitors from European Union members Finland, Denmark and Sweden leave the island after the EU added it to a list of “terrorist” organisations in May.
PHOTO CAPTION
Tamil Tiger rebels have pounded military bases in northeastern Sri Lanka with heavy artillery and mortar bombs, sparking a battle with government troops in which at least 20 civilians were wounded. (AFP)