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Sea battle tops Sri Lanka 's violence 16 Tamil rebels believed killed
Associated Press,
Wed March 28, 2007 23:27 EDT .
DILIP GANGULY - Associated Press Writer - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) Sri Lanka's navy intercepted 10 Tamil Tiger rebel boats advancing toward the country's northeastern coast, destroying three boats with 16 rebels aboard during a three-hour battle, the military said Thursday. One Sri Lanka navy sailor was wounded and hospitalized, said Lt. Col. Upali Rajapakse, a senior officer at the military's information center. The remaining rebel boats retreated following the battle, about 60 nautical miles off the port of Trincomalee, which serves as a supply base for an estimated 40,000 Sri Lankan troops stationed in northern Jaffna Peninsula. The destroyed boats caught fire and subsequently exploded, suggesting they may have been on a suicide mission, Rajapakse said. No comment was immediately available from the rebels. The sea confrontation came a day after Sri Lankan troops drove the Tamil rebels from a key base in the east, the Defense Ministry said, although the rebels said they had abandoned the Kokkadicholai base in Batticaloa district about a week beforehand. The Sri Lankan military has stepped up operations in the east over the past few weeks, forcing rebels to withdraw from more than a dozen bases and killing more than 140 insurgents, military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said. The figure does not include the 16 believed killed in the sea fight. Though the two sides remain ostensibly under a 2002 cease-fire accord, the country's descent back into war over the past year and a half came into sharp focus on Monday when the rebels carried out their first air strike in their campaign for a separate Tamil homeland. The air attack was followed by a suicide bombing in the east. The attacks Monday and Tuesday killed 11 people and wounded 36, prompting the government to issue the call for peace talks. The rebels have not responded to the government's suggestion. The rebels launched their fight for an independent homeland for the country's 3.1 million Tamils in 1983 after decades of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese. In the years since, they have pioneered the use of suicide bomb belts and slowly built up a navy of small gunboats. Hopes for peace that followed the 2002 cease-fire have been dashed in the past 18 months as sporadic shootings and bombings have grown into all-out war in eastern and northern Sri Lanka - , where the Tigers want to establish their separate state. An estimated 65,000 people were killed in fighting before the cease-fire, and at least 4,000 fighters and civilians are estimated to have died in the last 18 months.
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Published: Thu Mar 29 00:30:59 EDT 2007
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