Sri Lanka says Tiger suicide boats attack aid ships

By C. Bryson Hull

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's Navy said it destroyed two Tamil Tiger suicide boats that tried to ram a pair of freighters full of aid supplies on Wednesday, while diplomatic pressure from India over its war appeared to cool.

The rebels said they had sunk one of the ships, which they said were carrying military supplies, and inflicted heavy damage on the other. The military said one ship was slightly damaged.

Also on Wednesday, warnings surfaced from a group calling itself the Mahasohon Balakaya, or Ghost Force in the Sinhalese language, that lawyers defending Tamils accused in anti-terrorism cases would be killed.

The letters were sent on Tuesday to human rights lawyers and court registrars, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission. Mahasohon Balakaya said it was defending the thousands of innocent people who had been killed or maimed by Tiger bombings.

"Be warned that meting out the same fate to you in the name of our motherland would be a favour we would render to the entire nation," a copy of the letter seen by Reuters says.

The latest suicide attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) comes as Sri Lanka's government is pressing an offensive it is confident will soon end a war that has raged off and on for 25 years on the Indian Ocean island.

The navy said it fired on three LTTE boats that tried ram the freighters Nimalawa and Ruhuna. Two rebel boats exploded, the third capsized and six Tigers were killed, the navy said.

"Due to the nearby explosions, one ship got minor damage, but both are floating without casualties," navy spokesman Commander D.K.P. Dassanayaka said. At a later news briefing, he showed a picture of part of the Nimalawa that was blackened in the blast.