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Sri Lankan naval vessel attacked

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO MARCH 31. A Sri Lankan Government ship, Lanka Muditha, carrying troops to the northern Jaffna peninsula was fired at this evening, off the eastern Trincomalee coast, allegedly by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

``The Government ship was attacked by some dinghies with some firearms,'' about 11 nautical miles north of Trincomalee, the spokesman of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) told The Hindu.

The monitors in the east were unable to establish the exact identity of the dinghies that attacked the vessel, but the Navy sees the LTTE behind the incident. "The Navy informed us that one dinghy was sunk,'' the SLMM spokesman said.

Three soldiers were injured in the incident which, however, did not disrupt the voyage of the vessel, which was proceeding to the northern Kankesanthurai port with more than 1,000 soldiers on board, when reports last came in.

The LTTE controls pockets both in the north and south of Trincomalee, and the area where the incident took place is known to have had LTTE boat movements.

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