Sri Lanka Rebels Attack Mineral Ship, 32 Killed

Sri Lankas Tamil Tiger rebels attacked and set fire to a ship loaded with sand on Tuesday, triggering retaliation from the navy which sank four guerrilla boats, the defence ministry said.

It said in a statement that 32 people, including 25 rebels, were killed in the attack.

The ship had loaded 29,000 tonnes of the ore ilmenite and was anchored off Pulmoddai, north of the Indian Ocean islands eastern port of Trincomalee, when it was attacked by boats of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), shipping officials said.

This was the third attack by rebels on civilian ships since July and the second on a ship carrying mineral sand in the northeast since August last year.

 

The Panama-registered vessel, Cordiality, which belongs to the Chinese state shipping group COSCO, was scheduled to dock at Trincomalee on Tuesday before sailing to Rotterdam, said Shelton Perera, managing director of Roton Vander (Shipping) Ltd, the ships agent in Colombo.

He said the ships accommodation quarters and engine room had been severely damaged by fire.

The ship has flooded and is listing by the stern. We are trying to contact a salvage company, which has a boat in the vicinity, to try and rescue the ship, Perera said.

Soldiers in boats deployed in the region engaged the rebels boats, but a few rocket-propelled grenades fired by the guerrillas struck the ship and the engine room caught fire, the ministry statement said.

It said that two soldiers guarding the ship and five of the 60 labourers helping to load the ship were killed in the attack. Four soldiers and five workers were also wounded. Perera said that five of the 34 Chinese crew were said to be missing.

Hours after the attack, government troops boarded the vessel and a Sri Lankan Ports Authority barge was sent to help douse the fire, officials said.

The defence ministry said that naval gunboats had reached the spot soon after the attack and engaged LTTE boats in a battle, destroying four boats and damaging three. Earlier reports said eight rebel boats were destroyed.

In August last year, the rebels blasted a Philippine-registered cargo ship with an underwater device while it was loading mineral sand at Pulmoddai. No one was killed.

In July this year, the rebels attacked and burnt a ship used for transporting refugees to the northern Jaffna peninsula from western Mannar.

No refugees were on board at the time of the attack, but the crew of two Indonesians and seven Sri Lankans were captured by the rebels. The Indonesians were later released but there has been no word to date on the fate of the Sri Lankan crew.

On July 17, Tamil Tiger rebels attacked and seized a North Korean food ship after it had unloaded food and other essential items on the Jaffna peninsula.

One North Korean crew member was killed during the attack and the remaining 37 were later released to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The ship, which was anchored in the guerrilla-controlled waters off the northeastern town of Mullaitivu, was released on humanitarian grounds last month.

The LTTE is fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in Sri Lankas north and east. The government says more than 50,000 people have been killed in the war, now in its 15th year. The LTTE says the toll is higher.