Shipping Attack

Oct 22, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers have staged a suicide attack on merchant ships carrying supplies to the northern Jaffna peninsular early Wednesday, with at least one ship damaged, a military official said. Several merchant ships, operated by Sri Lankan firms, have been chartered by the government to ferry goods to the Jaffna peninsular which is cut off from the rest of the island by a strip land controlled by the Tamil Tigers.

Updated Sri Lanka Navy spokesman D K P Dassanayake says three Tamil Tiger suicide boats attacked the merchants ships Nimalawa and Ruhuna around 5.10 am, off the Kankasanthurai harbhour at the northern tip of the island.

The Navy had destroyed two of the explosive laden suicide boats, with the ship Nimalawa damaged in the blasts, he said.

The defence ministry said "considerable damage" had been caused to the ship's hull.

The Navy had captured the third Tamil Tiger boat, Dassanayake said.