Battle of Point Pedro (2006)
| Battle of Point Pedro (2006) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Sri Lankan Civil War | |||||||
 The MV Pearl Cruise II was at the center of a sea battle between the SLN and the Sea Tigers in May 2006 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Sri Lankan Navy | Sea Tigers | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
several gun boats, one troop transport | 15 boats | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 17 killed, 1 boat sunk[1] | 54 killed, 5 boats sunk[1] | ||||||
The Battle of Point Pedro was a naval battle that occurred on May 12, 2006 near Point Pedro,[2] Jaffna, Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan Navy was attacked by a group of Tamil Tiger boats. A group of SLN attack boats was escorting a troop transport, the MV Pearl Cruise II which was carrying 710 soldiers for the city of Jaffna which had been under siege for the previous six years.
About 15 Sea Tiger boats, including suicide boats, were engaged in the battle. One navy patrol boat SLNS P-418 and five Tiger boats were sunk. P-418 under Lieutenant Commander Lalith Edirisinghe was facing engine trouble and thus Edirisinghe decided to use his own craft as a shield to protect the transport and was sunk by an LTTE suicide boat that was aimed at the transport. The SLN suffered 18 sailors killed while the Sea Tigers had 54 reported dead. The LTTE boats did not manage to get to the troop transport, and the attack was repelled.[1][3][4]
References
- ^ a b c Jamaica Gleaner News - SRI LANKA: 50 REBELS KILLED, 17 SAILORS MISSING - A nation on brink of war - Friday | May 12, 2006 Archived November 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ CNN.com - Tamil rebels warn truce monitors - May 12, 2006 Archived August 18, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Naval Battles of the Sri Lanka Civil War". Soviet-Empire. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
- ^ Joseph, Dishan. "Cruising on the waves of victory". Daily News. Retrieved 2020-09-27.