Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels yesterday staged suicide attacks against a ferry carrying 1,200 soldiers, triggering intense sea battles which left 29 people dead and several more missing.
A cluster of at least 20 boats from the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) attacked the military-chartered ferry, the MV Pride of South, off northern Sri Lanka, according to the defence ministry spokesman, Mr Sanath Karunaratne.
He said the navy successfully repelled the attack against the ferry, but a coastal patrol craft, with 12 sailors, was missing.
A further 11 sailors were killed and 43 soldiers aboard the ferry were wounded. The navy destroyed three rebel craft, including some packed with explosives and ready to ram the larger vessel.
"At least 15 Tigers were killed in the three boats that were destroyed," the spokesman said. There was no immediate reaction from spokesmen for the guerrillas.
Mr Karunaratne said four more rebel boats were damaged in an intense pre-dawn battle which followed a suicide bombing against a navy fast attack craft near the north-eastern port of Trincomalee on Saturday.
At least three people were killed in the attack, but the navy craft escaped without damage and there were no casualties among sailors.
Yesterday's pre-dawn raid came as a surprise as military authorities had expected the Tigers to refrain from high-profile action at least until the dust settled on the terrorist attacks in the US.
Western diplomats had also speculated that the Tamil Tigers, who have been designated a "foreign terrorist group" in the US since October 1997, would not want to attract attention to themselves with spectacular suicide bombings.
The ferry regularly transports troops from the north-eastern port of Trincomalee to the northern peninsula of Jaffna. In Saturday's attack, a navy craft had approached a small boat thinking it was in distress after an elderly man, a teenager and another person on board put up a white flag. As the navy vessel neared the boat, it came under attack. When it retaliated, the fishing boat exploded.
"All three people on board that boat evaporated, indicating that it was packed with explosives to ram against the navy fast attack craft," Mr Karunaratne said.
Tamil Tiger guerrillas, leading a campaign for an independent homeland in the island's northeast, have carried out several attacks against navy and merchant ships, including using boats carrying suicide bombers.