Saturday, January 7 2006 10:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Colombo: Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels today (Jan 07, 2006) blew up a Sri Lankan navy gunboat in a daring suicide attack killing five sailors, with ten others missing and presumed dead, the defence ministry said.

Spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe said the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) carried out the attack against one of two gunboats that went out from the north eastern port of Trincomalee early this morning.

"Definitely this is the work of the LTTE," Samarasinghe said here. "There were two officers and 13 sailors onboard the gunboat".

Official sources said the bodies of an officer and four sailors were recovered by dawn and the other 10 were also presumed killed in the attack in high seas.

It was the biggest single loss suffered by the military since a truce went into effect from February 23, 2002.

With the latest attack, the number of people killed in clashes since December climbed to over 115, according to official figures.

On December 22, the Tigers sank a smaller navy patrol craft together with three sailors in the north-western waters of Mannar.

Several naval craft were deployed for a major search off Trincomalee today, but at first light the navy was still trying to locate the wreckage of the Israeli-built dvora that was blasted out of the water.

There had been some fishing boats in the area at the time of the blast and the sources believed that a boat packed with explosives was used to attack the naval craft.