Tamil Tiger rebels accused Scandinavian truce monitors today of protecting Sri Lanka's navy, a day after one of the country's bloodiest sea battles punched another hole in a tenuous ceasefire.
The Tigers said in a statement that the 60-member Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission was altering the balance of power in the island's embattled northeast by siding with government navy forces.
The monitoring mission said it was the Tigers who launched the attack, which also jeopardised the safety of Scandinavians aboard Sri Lankan vessels.
The monitors were due to formally take up the issue with the Tigers, diplomats said.
Sri Lanka's government condemned the attack against a naval convoy escorting some 700 soldiers and said the international community must now 'look at the Tigers in a different light'.
'Tigers have mocked the Japanese and the rest of the international community with this major attack a day after the Japanese envoy (Yasushi Akashi) left the country,' said Palitha Kohona, head of Colombo's Peace Secretariat.
Mr Kohona said the navy managed to stave off the attack but at a high cost. The military said it lost 15 sailors, two officers and an army signalman aboard an Israeli-built Dvora fast attack craft that was sunk by the Tigers during yesterday's sea battle off the Jaffna peninsula.
The military said 30 Tigers died in the counter-attack but the guerrillas said four were killed.
