SL navy sinks suspected LTTE arms vessel

Colombo, Feb 28: Sri Lankan Navy today attacked and completelysank a suspected arms smuggling vessel of the Tamil Tiger rebels offDondra Point in the Southern seas, naval sources here claimed.

According to the naval sources, Sri Lanka naval craft on routinepatrol in the Southern seas spotted a suspicious vessel in the morningand ordered it to stop for check and identification.

''The suspicious ship ignored the navy's repeated warnings andstarted moving towards the deep seas when naval craft fired at thevessel, sinking it completely in the deep seas around 0845 hrs thismorning,'' the sources added.

He said the suspected LTTE vessel caught fire with a couple ofhuge explosions when it got it by the navy fire, confirming that it wasone of the gun-running vessels of the LTTE.

UNI