The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) sparked a fresh row over their right to operate their deadly Sea Tiger naval force following Thursday's sinking of a Sri Lankan navy gunboat.
"When the ceasefire was signed in 2002, the LTTE fighting formations, including the Sea Tigers, existed," the LTTE told the Scandinavian monitors Friday, rejecting a ruling that Tigers could not access the Indian Ocean.
"We have repeatedly informed the SLMM (Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission) that we will retaliate if navy vessels intercept us.
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The guerrillas are increasingly taking their fight on to the seas thanks to a secretive and lethal rebel "navy", a rarity among the world's guerrilla forces.
The Black Sea Tigers, or the suicide wing of the seaborne arm of the LTTE, have also boasted that the Al-Qaeda militants who bombed the USS Cole in October 2000 off Yemen were inspired by them.
Long before the Cole attack, the LTTE was ramming explosives-packed boats, each manned by two Black Sea Tigers, into S