COLOMBO: The Sri Lanka Navy on Friday claimed to have foiled an early morning attack on the Colombo harbour by the LTTE.

Hours after the attack, the military was reluctant to admit the attempted attack presumably because of its economic implications for the Colombo port. Later in the evening, the Navy confirmed that the LTTE had attempted to attack large vessels at the Rangala naval base in Colombo.

A statement by the SLA said its fast attack craft fired at three suspicious boats coming towards restricted waters off Colombo around 5:40 a.m. They initially destroyed one boat at a location 6 nautical miles off Colombo and pursued the remaining boats further westward.

Later reports indicate that the remaining two boats have also been destroyed at a location 11 nautical miles off Colombo.

The detection was initially made by the land sentries manning the southern parameters of the Colombo harbour High Security Zone and informed the naval craft at sea.

No fishing vessels are allowed into the restricted zone that stretches approximately 10 nautical miles seaward from the Colombo port. Three LTTE suspects found in the third boat are being interrogated.

There was no word from the LTTE on the incident. TamilNet claimed that three to five attack boats on Saturday morning entered the outer harbour waters of the Colombo harbour and launched attacks on Navy vessels.

It said shock waves from the explosion slightly damaged a Panama-registered container vessel Peloponesian Pride, approaching the harbour.

A search operation was launched by the Navy and the Air Force after the incident that comes three months after an attack on Galle harbour.

Separately the military claimed that the LTTE launched a mortar attack on security forces in Kalmadu, north of Vavuniya, early in the morning.

In a statement, it said in the last few days, Tigers engaged in terrorist activities in Vavuniya, Omanthe, Murunkan, Kokkuthuduwai, Welioya, Parayankulam.

The statement said that on January 21 the LTTE abducted a police constable in Hettikulam and Sunduvendrapilaw and killed him.

The same day another police constable was killed and another injured in Kalmadu.

On January 22 the Tigers killed two youths near Vairawa Kovil, Vavuniya. The same day security forces recovered a haul of hidden weapons, which the Tigers were to use against the security forces.

On January 23 security forces recovered a claymore mine and other arms.

The same day the LTTE targeted an RDA vehicle, killed a civilian and wounded four. On January 24 the security forces killed three Tiger cadres in a retaliatory attack.

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