LTTE sinks Lankan escort ship; 15 sailors missing

A statement from the ministry said there were two flotillas of Sea Tiger boats, a large number of which were sunk along with their occupants in a “close confrontation” with another navy boat that went to the assistance of the Dvora.

The Dvora was part of a group of naval ships deployed in the area for patrolling and providing escort to the government transport ship Lanka Muditha. The ship was to have set sail last evening from Kankesanthurai port in Jaffna with 700 soldiers and 250 civilians on board but did not leave as scheduled due to rough seas. It left this morning around 4 am, but either on witnessing or being informed of the battle ahead, madea U-turn and went back to Kankesanthurai.

The destruction of the Lanka Muditha‘s escort seems to be a warning from the LTTE that it now considers the cargo ship a legitimate military target. It is an open secret that along with food supplies for civilians, the ship has been ferrying men and material to the warfront due to the severe shortage of military transport aircraft.

Of late, the Lanka Muditha has been pressed into service to ferry civilians as well after civilian flights to the north were suspended following the disappearance of a plane, Lion Air flight 512, carrying 48 Tamil civilians and six crew members. It is widely believed to have been shot down by the LTTE.

The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), Sri Lanka’s oldest Tamil party, warned last week that transporting soldiers and civilians in the same ship would put the lives of the civilians at risk but apparently, the warning has not been heeded.

According to reports, it was because the army often commandeered civilianflights to transport soldiers that the LTTE shot down the Lion Air plane. The day it disappeared, the LTTE had won a major military victory against the Sri Lankan army at Killinochchi and the plane was thought by the Tigers to be transporting wounded soldiers.