Sri Lankan navy destroys six boats, kills 17 Tamils

Colombo: Sri Lanka's navy fought a fierce battle on Saturday against Tamil Tigers in the northern sea, destroying six rebel boats and killing 17 guerrillas with the help of air strikes by military bomber planes, officials said.

Navy spokesman D.K.P Dassanayake said the sea battle took place in the early morning off northern Jaffna peninsula when the navy observed a cluster of rebel boats and attacked them.

The clash killed 14 rebels and destroyed four boats, while five sailors were wounded in the fighting, he said.

Air force planes later chased fleeing rebel boats and bombed them at their landing point, destroying two more boats and killing three more rebels, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

The Tamil Tigers could not be contacted for comment because communication lines to rebel-held territory have been severed.

However the rebel-affiliated TamilNet Web site reported that rebel suicide fighters had sunk two navy vessels and damaged another. Seven rebels were killed in the mission, the report said.

About 20 boats took part in the attack, the report said.

It is difficult to get independent accounts of battles in Sri Lanka's civil war because reporters are barred from the war zone.