23 Sea Tigers Killed: Sri Lankan Military

350 SLA killed and more than 750 wounded: LTTE

(May 01, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) SriLanka Navy's elite Special Boat Squadron (SBS), Fast Attack Craft (FAC) and Rapid Action Boat squadron (RABS) destroyed three sea tiger boats killing twenty three sea tigers in the seas off Mullaittivu around 1.00 AM today (1st May 2009), the Sri Lankan Navy said in an official statement on today morning.

According to the Statement, “ the vigilant Naval troops engaged a combined cluster of two sea tiger suicide crafts and one attack craft which attempted abortively to launch a suicide attack against the Naval crafts deployed on patrolling in the seas off Mullaittivu in the early hours today. Two suicide crafts laden with high explosives and one enemy attack craft were completely destroyed by the Naval gun fire while killing 23 sea tiger cardres. Mean while the monitoring of sea tiger communication has revealed that LTTE sea tigers have suffered severe casualties in this confrontation.”

However, source close to the Tamil Tiger rebel says, “the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) continued to attack Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal shore since Wednesday 4:00 p.m., killing and maiming many. Hence, the Sea Tigers confronted the SLN vessels sinking a water jet gun-boat and Dvora Fast Attack Craft (FAC) around 2:45 p.m. Thursday.”

The Voice of Tigers (VoT), the LTTE radio broadcast reported heavy fighting in the early hours of Wednesday north of Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal. At least 350 SLA soldiers were killed and more than 700 sustained injuries, the LTTE claimed.

Meanwhile, the official website of Sri Lanka Army, www.army.lk has been hacked by suspected LTTE hackers this morning (May 1). The Webmaster of the Army called the attack a desperate bid by the LTTE propagandists to hold the truth on humanitarian mission being revealed to the world. He said measures are being taken to restore the website soon.
-Sri Lanka Guardian