Sri Lanka navy says sinks rebel vessel in sea clash

COLOMBO, July 1 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's navy sank a Tamil Tiger vessel approaching a military base at the island's northern tip overnight, naval officials said today.

There were no immediate details of casualties in the latest of a rash of clashes which have raised the spectre of a return to civil war.

''The Navy fired and destroyed one Tamil Tiger boat approaching Kankesanturai in Jaffna (peninsular),'' navy spokesman Commander D K P Dassanayake said early today.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were not immediately available for comment.

The incident comes just days after a flotilla of around 20 rebel boats attacked two small navy vessels near a northwestern base on Monday in an attack that killed five sailors and at least one Tamil Tiger.

It also follows a spray of ambushes, shootings and military clashes culminated in the assassination of one of Sri Lanka's top generals by a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber, who rammed his motorbike into an army convoy near the capital.

A wave of attacks on the island has now killed more than 700 people so far this year, straining a 2002 ceasefire between the military and the Tigers to breaking point.

Sri Lanka's tortuous peace process is deadlocked and teetering on collapse. The government and rebels are sharply divided over the Tigers' demands for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east.

Some diplomats fear it is just a matter of time before a war that has already killed more than 65,000 people since 1983 reignites. Others feel neither side is ready for a full-blown conflict, and while constantly provoking the military, the Tigers do not want to be seen to start an all-out war.

Nonetheless, the Tigers say they are ready to fight a war if one is thrust upon them by the government.

They told Reuters last month they would resort to all strategies -- including the suicide bombings -- if war resumes.

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