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Colombo accuses Tigers of seizing foreign vessel

B. Muralidhar Reddy

LTTE says it rescued crew of drifting Jordanian ship

COLOMBO: The LTTE on Saturday claimed to have rescued 25 crewmembers of a drifting merchant navy ship off the Mullaittivu coast. The 150-metre-long vessel was carrying 14,000 tonnes of rice from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh to Durban in South Africa.

However, the Sri Lanka Navy (SLA) said a maritime distress message that the ship is under armed pirate attack was received by the Maritime Rescuing Coordinating Centre, Falmouth in U.K. and was conveyed to the Sri Lankan authorities.

The LTTE said in a statement posted in its web site that an unrecognised ship was observed within the "Tamil Eelam sea borders" off the Mullaittivu coast and "suspicious movement" of a Sri Lankan Naval craft was also observed in the vicinity.

Artillery attack

"Sea Tigers approached the scene to confirm the circumstances. The ship turned out to be foreign merchant vessel drifting towards Mullaittivu coast due to mechanical failure and rough seas. Sea Tigers immediately took the necessary steps to rescue the crew of the foreign merchant ship and transport them to safety," it said. The SLA alleged in a statement that the Sea Tigers forcibly boarded the Jordanian Merchant Vessel named Farha III. It said attempts made by the Naval units to establish communication with the vessel failed as the Sea Tigers had disconnected communication links.

Separately, it said the army launched artillery barrage simultaneously from three directions, Kallaru SLA camp, north of Vaharai, Karadikkulam, in the west and from Mankerni SLA camp in the south towards many villages in the Vaharai region.

It claimed that the artillery barrage, launched around 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, continued for more than 8 hours.

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