Sri Lankan navy sinks five Tamil rebel boats
11/05/2006 - 15:42:30Sri Lanka’s military said it sank five Tamil Tiger rebel boats today in retaliation for the sinking of a navy vessel which European ceasefire monitors said may have taken the nation a step closer to civil war.
The rebels sank the vessel in an attack on a navy convoy that was protecting a ship carrying army personnel from Point Pedro in the northern peninsula of Jaffna to the north-eastern Trincomalee, said Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission.
She said a truce monitor was in the vessel with the soldiers, adding that further details, including casualty numbers, were not immediately available.
An official at the military media unit said at least 15 sailors were missing.
In retaliation for the attack, the navy sank five rebel boats, he said.
