5TH LEAD (CORRECTION)

Sea Tigers sink SLA vessel, recover 3 bodies

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 October 2007, 08:04 GMT]
Five Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and three dead bodies of the SLA soldiers were recovered by the Sea Tigers who sunk a SLA Inshore Patrol Vessel (IPV) in the seas off Paasaiyoor in Jaffna Saturday around 10:45 a.m. in a retaliation against an attack by three SLA vessels that entered the LTTE territorial waters, the Tigers said. Sea Tigers have seized weapons from the sinking vessel. Arrangements were underway to hand over the three dead bodies to the ICRC.

One PK-LMG, one AK-LMG, one 40 mm gun, two T-56 rifles, a communication set, eight hand grenades, two-hundred AK-LMG rounds, one-hundred PK-LMG rounds, a jacket holster, two T-56 magazines and one oil container were seized, according to the field officials of the Tigers in Vanni.

A limited, but intensive sea operation was launched by the SLN with artillery fire support that targeted the LTTE controlled areas, according to the fishermen who left the waters of the lagoon.

The Tigers said the clash only lasted for 30 minutes in the waters near Paasaiyoor and Kurunakar.

Meanwhile, SLA sources in Jaffna claimed to have sunk a Sea Tiger vessel and said seven SLA soldiers were wounded in the clash.

However, the SLA officials in Colombo, admitting that 3 SLA soldiers were missing claimed to have killed 3 Sea Tiger personnel in the clash.

There was no LTTE casualties, according to the Tigers.

Chronology: