A Tamil Tiger suicide attack on a Sri Lankan Navy attack boat yesterday that left 17 dead and provoked retaliatory government air strikes has been described by European peace monitors as "almost the same as terminating the ceasefire by will."

In an action that brings the country closer to a return to civil war, suicide bombers believed to be from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rammed and sank an Israeli-designed attack boat travelling with a convoy off Sri Lanka’s northeast coast. In the ensuing battle the Navy destroyed five rebel vessels.

A naval spokesman, Commander D.K.P. Dassanayake said: "About 15 LTTE boats including suicide boats attacked one of our vessels transporting 710 soldiers. Navy fast-attack boats escorting the vessel engaged the Tiger boats and one of them was destroyed by a suicide boat."

The Air Force responded further by bombing and shelling LTTE-held territory in the north of the country.

The LTTE claim that the Sri Lankan Navy attacked first whilst their navy, known as the Sea Tigers, was engaging in exercises. An LTTE spokesman also accused them of using western truce monitors as human shields.

Three members of the Nordic Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), set up to monitor the 2002 ceasefire agreement that ended two decades of civil war, were travelling with the Navy convoy at the time.

The head of the SLMM, Major General Ulf Henricsson, said that the convoy was clearly displaying the flag of the truce monitors, adding "It’s a big violation. It’s almost the same as terminating the ceasefire by will."

In a later statement the SLMM said, "This sort of reckless behaviour can only lead to a dangerous escalation resulting in growing hostilities and jeopardizing any possibility for future peace talks."

Violence between the separatist LTTE and the Sri Lankan government increased markedly after the November 2005 election of hard-line President Mahinda Rajapakse, with around 200 people dying in clashes throughout the island in the last month alone.

Peace talks scheduled to take place in Geneva in April were indefinitely cancelled by the LTTE who, amongst other things, accuse the Sri Lankan Government of covertly supporting a rival rebel group in the east of the country, known as the Karuna faction

The LTTE began fighting in 1983 for the creation of a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils in the north and east of the country. Around 64,000 died in the conflict, which ended with a ceasefire in 2002.

Under the terms of the ceasefire the LTTE is allowed to run a de facto government in the north with its own army and police force. However, according to the SLMM these concessions do not extend to the right to control their own navy.

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