Navy destroys three LTTE arms ships

Three light aircraft among the cargo destroyed:

Ranil Wijayapala

COLOMBO: Dealing a crippling blow to the LTTE’s arms smuggling capability, the Sri Lanka Navy destroyed three Tiger vessels 24 hours apart in the high seas South East of Sri Lanka, reducing the LTTE fleet to just one vessel, Navy Commander Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda said yesterday.

“On reliable information received, several Navy vessels set off to the high seas in search of suspected LTTE vessels and completed the mission sinking three Tiger vessels,” the Navy Commander said.

Three ‘floating warehouses’ as described by the Navy Commander 40 metres to 75 metres in size, transporting arms and ammunition were destroyed and sunk with huge explosions following Navy fire at three locations in the high seas South East of Sri Lanka.

The Naval troops succeeded in destroying three arms smuggling vessels at a time the LTTE was in desperate need of arms and ammunition especially in the Wanni with the Navy sealing off the Sri Lankan coastal borders blocking off LTTE arms shipments.

According to the Navy, three vessels - Manyoshi, Sheshin and Koshia- as indicated in the LTTE Naval registry were destroyed by the Naval fire.

Manyoshi, a 45 metre long vessel, was detected and destroyed by the Navy around 7 a.m. on Monday in the sea 600 Nautical Miles South East of Sri Lanka.

According to information available with the Navy, three light air craft and a bullet proof vehicle meant for LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was on board the vessel along with arms and ammunition.

The second ship, Sheshin according to the LTTE registry, 44 m in length was destroyed at 5.30 p.m. on Monday. The ship which was carrying a high speed boat was destroyed amidst 72 explosions.

“Naval vessels detected the third vessel around 10 pm on Monday and gave chase for nearly eight hours before destroying and sinking it at around 3 am yesterday,” the Navy Commander added.

The third ship Koshia was sailing relatively faster than the other two ships and was the biggest ship among the three destroyed ships.

“The Navy identified these three ships as rogue ships as they were not flying flags, carried no name, port of call, the Navy was following the international rules of engagement, prior to destroying them,” the Navy Commander added.

The Navy destroyed two ships in March and June in 2003, one ship in the sea off Kalmunai and two in the sea off Dondra Head on February 28, 2007.

“We carried out this operation collecting and analyzing the information about the LTTE ships for more than one and half years,” Vice Admiral Karannagoda added.

According to Navy Spokesman Commander D.K.P. Dassanayaka, 120 mm, 130 mm and 152 mm artillery and mortar rounds and, 120 mm mortar guns were on board the three vessels destroyed and sunk by the Navy.