Sri Lanka says sinks 12 Tiger boats, rebels scoff

COLOMBO, Sep 2 (Reuters)- Sri Lanka's navy today said it sank 12 Tamil Tiger craft in a pre-dawn naval battle off the island's northern tip, killing dozens of guerrillas including suicide fighters, but the rebels dismissed the claim.

The clash at sea near the besieged army-held Jaffna peninsula comes amid five weeks of intense fighting after four years of ceasefire, and as the army seeks to wrest control of rebel territory near a strategic port in the island's northeast.

''It was a major attack. There were 20 rebel boats. We were able to destroy 12 LTTE craft, including five LTTE suicide boats,'' a military spokesman told Reuters. ''They were humiliated in their so-called seas and withdrew.'' He said he believed at least 75 Tigers had been killed, but there was no independent confirmation. A pro-rebel Web site said two navy boats were sunk in the confrontation, but officials laughed off the claim.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said eight of their fighters were killed in the clash, but said none of their boats were sunk.

''The Sri Lankan navy was disturbing fishermen along the coastline, so we had to push them back,'' Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said by telephone from the rebels' northern stronghold. ''None of our boats sank. Only a couple were damaged.'' Analysts suspect both the rebels and the military are playing down their own death tolls.

The military spokesman said two sailors were injured and two navy fast-attack boats were slightly damaged by gunfire in the battle, which raged through the night and into the early hours today.

REBEL LINES He said he believed the Tiger flotilla had been seeking to attack a northern naval base at Kankasanturai (KKS) on the Jaffna peninsula, which is cut off from the rest of the island by rebel lines and where there are severe food shortages.

''I feel like they were doing something to disrupt KKS to damage supply lines to the north,'' he said.

Officials said air force fighter jets also bombed a Tiger training camp in the rebels' northeastern heartland, but there were no details of any casualties. Ilanthiraiyan said the bombs had hit empty civilian houses and damaged a few trees.

The army is trying to take the Tiger-held town of Sampur, where the rebels are in artillery range of a major naval base in the northeastern harbour of Trincomalee and able to disrupt a key maritime supply route to Jaffna.

Fourteen soldiers have been killed and 92 wounded since that offensive began on Sunday. The army estimates around 120 rebels were killed.

The military said Jaffna itself was quiet after days of artillery battles, and residents -- thousands of whom want to evacuate to Colombo after weeks being trapped in the enclave -- were hopeful civilian flights would soon resume to the capital.

Airline Aerolanka said 5,000 people in Jaffna had asked for seats on flights. Other residents are just trying to get by.

''It looks as though this is a never-ending war,'' said Sarojini Rajadurai, a 38-year-old mother of three whose husband was killed in a motorbike accident last year and who supplements her widow's pension by renting out rooms to university students.

''I feel there is a curse on the Tamil community -- and for that matter on Sri Lanka,'' she added.

More than 20 lorries carrying government aid have been allowed into rebel territory since Thursday.

The government is preparing to send a second shipment of aid to Jaffna. A vessel is expected to sail tomorrow.

But humanitarian workers say the government is hampering the delivery of supplies, such as medicines, to rebel areas.

Diplomats see little real effort by either side to de-escalate the violence, and while the 2002 truce still technically holds on paper, they expect a war that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983 to rumble on.

REUTERS AB KP2346