Sri Lanka bombs Tiger rebels after navy boat sunk

By Rob Taylor

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan air force jets bombed rebel Tamil Tiger ground positions on Saturday after a navy patrol boat was sunk by a suspected rebel mine off the northeast coast, with 10 of the 16 crew missing and feared dead.

Pro-Tamil sources said the Dvora fast attack boat was destroyed by a suicide squad of so-called black Tiger fighters, with three rebels killed in the sea clash.

But the military said the boat struck a mine during an early morning patrol by two navy craft in darkness near Nayaru area, around 300 kms north of the capital Colombo.

"We suspect it was an LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) sea mine," navy spokesman Commander D.K.P Dassanayake told Reuters, saying the explosion happened around 2am.

"The commander of the boat said it was raining and he heard an explosion, so we suspect it's a sea mine explosion as there were no LTTE boats around that time and there wasn't any confrontation," Dassanayake said.

The pro-Tiger website www.tamilnet.com said rebel suicide fighters destroyed the boat.

"Elite Black Sea Tigers, engaged in a confrontation with a fleet of the Sri Lanka Navy in the seas off Mullaiththeevu, attacked and sunk a Dvora Fast Attack Craft," the Web site said, citing Tiger sources in Vanni.

Both sides regularly make conflicting claims to boost front-line morale. Their reports are impossible to verify since Nordic peace monitors who had been keeping watch over a shaky ceasefire left the island this year.