Sri Lankan Navy and the Tamil Tigers were engaged in a fierce gun battle off the island's northern coast, defense officials said Thursday.

The clash occurred around 8:00 a.m. local time (0200 GMT) Thursday at Pallimunai in Mannar, 312 km north of the Capital Colombo when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) sea Tigers suddenly emerging from among the fishermen attacked the Navy boats, defense officials in the capital said.

The Navy on the spot said three sailors had disappeared in the gun battle that ensued and a Naval dinghy boat had been abducted by the Tigers.

However, the Navy spokesman Commodore Jayantha Perera denied the abduction story. He said six suspected LTTE members were arrested.

This was yet another LTTE attack against the security forces in the north of the country. Early this month the Tigers killed 15 soldiers in Jaffna by triggering two claymore mine attacks.

As many as eight separate attacks using weapons were directed by the Tigers against security forces during on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Two soldiers were killed in those attacks with two more injured.

On Monday tension prevailed in the city of Jaffna when students backed by the Tigers clashed with the Army which resulted in injuries to 15 civilians.

The growing number of clashes have raised fears of resumption of the separatist armed conflict after a cease-fire which came into force in February 2002.

The new Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse is keen to re- start the stalled peace negotiations but has found the escalating violence an impediment to put back on track the Norwegian facilitated process.

Source: Xinhua