Sri Lanka’s Navy claimed to have destroyed two of the Tamil Tiger rebels’ suicide boats on Wednesday as they tried to ram a pair of freighters carrying aid supplies off the island’s northern coast.

The rebels admitted that two of their “Black Sea Tigers” naval suicide squad had been killed, but claimed that they had sunk one of the freighters, which they said were carrying military supplies.

They said they severely damaged the second freighter, but the military said that only one ship was slighltly damaged.

The Tigers’ latest suicide attack comes amid heavy fighting between the Sri Lankan army and the rebels’ land forces within a few miles of their northern jungle stronghold of Killinochchi.

The Sri Lankan government has vowed to defeat the Tigers by the end of the year, bringing a permanent end to a conflict that has killed at least 70,000 people since it started in 1983.

But while its campaign has made significant military gains, it has drawn criticism from Western governments, human rights groups and, most recently, India.

Yesterday’s attack occurred north of Mullaittivu, a Tiger stronghold not far from where the majority of a U.N.-estimated 230,000 refugees are trapped.

The navy said it fired on three Tiger boats that tried to ram the freighters, Nimalawa and Ruhuna, as they were taking food and other essential items to the displaced.

It said that two rebel boats exploded, the third capsized and six members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Tigers’ official name, were killed.

“By attacking these ships, the LTTE terrorists are trying to disrupt the smooth flow of essential items to Jaffna and thereby create a humanitarian crisis in the region,” the government said in a statement.

“It is patently clear that the LTTE is trying to get the attention of the international community by these indiscriminate activities.” The Tigers, who also have a small air force, have a history of attacking international and local merchant shipping and were blamed by the military for the killing of 24 Chinese crew members of two fishing boats in 2003.

Rebel spokesmen could not immediately be contacts as almost all the communications lines to northern Sri Lanka have been cut since the government’s new offensive began.

But the pro-Tamil Puthinam Web site reported that the rebels sank a ship transporting military equipment disguised as essential goods for civilians in the northern Jaffna peninsula.

The pro-rebel website http://www.TamilNet.com also quoted the Tigers as saying that two of their “Black Sea Tigers” died while sinking the Nimalawa.

One was Lieutenant Colonel Ilakkiya, the deputy head of the “Black Sea Tiger” women’s unit, and the other was identified as Lieutenant Colonel Kuperan, it said.

It quoted unnamed LTTE officials who said the Nimalawa was carrying “military and other supplies”.

The Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for a homeland in the north and northeast to protect the ethnic Tamil minority, which is mainly Hindu, from the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese majority.

The rebel group is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.

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