Lankan navy sinks suspected LTTE spy-boat

Colombo, July 1: Sri Lankan Navy today claimed that it has sunk a suspected LTTE boat on spy mission in the vicinity of a strategically important naval base at Kankesanthurai (KKS) in the Northern Jaffna peninsula late last night.

''The Navy on patrol detected a suspected LTTE boat proceeding from Thondamanaru towards restricted zone around the KKS naval base.

As the boat refused to respond to the warnings to stop, the Navy opened fire and sunk the boat around 2220 hrs last night,'' Navy Spokesman, Commander P D K Dassanayake told UNI over the phone.

He said that the boat did not explode but caught fire when it was hit by the Navy fire and expressed suspicion that ''it could have been on a spy mission to monitor the movements of the Navy in the area.'' ''We do not know the details of casualty,'' the Navy spokesman said.

The incident at the northern sea has come barely a couple of days after the Sea Tigers and the Navy clashed in the north-western seas off Kalpittiya sea that left at least 17 combatants killed. There was no immediate reaction from the LTTE in this regard.

UNI

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