Irregular Opposition to Seaborne Infantry

OK, Marines or not, check out this story:

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – At least 50 rebels were killed and 17 Sri Lankan sailors missing after a sea battle Thursday instigated by the Tamil Tigers left the country on the brink of civil war.

Tamil Tigers sank a navy patrol boat off the northern coast as it escorted a troop transport carrying 710 soldiers. In retaliation, the navy downed five rebel vessels and the air force launched airstrikes on guerrilla-held territory.

The escalation in violence could mark a return to civil war, as a 2002 cease-fire that stopped almost two decades of fighting appears increasingly unlikely to last.

“This is a very serious attack (by the Tigers), a blatant violation of the cease-fire agreement,” government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told The Associated Press.

The patrol boat was part of a convoy escorting a troop carrier that was attacked by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels, navy spokesman Cmdr. D.K.P. Dassanayake said.

“About 15 LTTE boats including suicide boats attacked one of our vessels transporting 710 soldiers,” Dassanayake said.

“Navy fast-attack boats escorting the vessel engaged the Tiger boats and one of them was destroyed by a suicide boat,” he said, adding there were about 20 sailors on board the stricken vessel.

A search was ongoing late Thursday for the missing sailors who “made worthy efforts to save hundreds of soldiers who were on board the main vessel,” Dassanayake said.

At least 50 Tiger guerrillas were on the sunken rebel boats and all were believed dead, Dassanayake said. A pro-rebel Web site quoted unnamed rebel sources as saying they lost only four guerrillas in the battle.

What the Tamil Tigers have just shown us in Sri Lanka (on a micro scale) are the guerilla TTPs for seaborne operations. Stay tuned.