Clash in Jaffna lagoon, salvage operations on

Three Army personnel were reported missing while three LTTE cadres were killed and three wounded, in a confrontation at sea between the two sides in the Jaffna lagoon yesterday morning.

The military said the fighting started when the Army spotted two LTTE boats that had infiltrated the fishing clusters and were attempting to proceed towards Pooneryn. They were fired on by the Army when they failed to respond to a call not to proceed.

One LTTE boat was destroyed while another boat had rammed into a patrol craft. Three soldiers were reported missing after the incident, the military said.

Two other LTTE boats were also reported to have been severely damaged during heavy retaliatory attacks from troops. The Army has launched a diving and salvage operation to trace the missing men. Meanwhile, the LTTE claimed that five security personnel were killed in the attack and that they had recovered three bodies close to an Inshore Patrol Vessel (IPV) they claimed to have sunk last morning.