Sri Lankan forces sank three Tamil Tiger arm ship

Colombo, Sep 11 : Sri Lankan forces sank three Tamil Tiger arms vessels, authorities said today.

''The Navy sank three big LTTE vessels caring weapons off (the) south eastern sea,'' a spokesman for the Media Centre for National Security said.

The fighting was the latest in a spate of land and sea battles, ambushes and air raids between the armed forces andLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels. The Tigers, who say they are fighting for an independent state for minority ethnic Tamils in the north and east, were not immediately available for comment.

An estimated 5,000 people have died since last year in renewed fighting after a peace process collapsed. In the civil war that erupted in 1983 about 70,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Reuters>