Sri Lanka rebels free crew of stricken Jordan ship

COLOMBO, Dec 25 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels today released 25 crew of a Jordanian ship that had drifted into waters near a guerrilla stronghold in the north, a rebel spokesman said.

''We have handed over the crew to the ICRC at 1000 hrs IST. They are going to Vavuniya by road,'' Daya Master, media coordinator of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, told Reuters from the de facto rebel capital of Kilinochchi.

The town of Vavuniya separates the LTTE-controlled area in the north from the rest of the country.

The Jordanian vessel Farah III, carrying a cargo of rice, drifted off the Mullaittivu coast in the island's war-torn northeast early on Saturday after mechanical failure.

The ship had become the latest flashpoint in fighting between the Sri Lankan military and the LTTE in the north and the east of the island that has forced thousands of people to flee.

The military accused the Tamil Tigers of forcibly boarding the vessel while it was adrift with a cargo of 14,000 tonnes of rice bound for South Africa from India.

LTTE's Daya Master said the ship was still off Mullaittivu.

Foreign truce monitors yesterday urged the LTTE to respect international law and said the military was planning to mount an operation to rescue the crew and salvage the ship.

More than 3,000 people have died this year in violence between the army and Tamil Tigers.

Yesterday, LTTE guerrillas threw a grenade at a police post near a church in the northwestern town of Mannar, killing a policeman and wounding three others, the military said.

Both sides say a 2002 ceasefire still holds, but truce monitors say the agreement is in tatters.

Reuters DKA DB1225