COLOMBO, Dec 26: The crew of a Jordanian cargo ship said on Tuesday that Tamil Tiger rebels had attacked their vessel after it developed engine trouble near a militant-held area.

The rebels in six boats surrounded the Farah III and fired into the air as they boarded the vessel on Dec 23, Captain R. Abdullah said.

“This was an armed attack. This is piracy,” Abdullah told a news conference here.

After boarding the ship, the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) tried to blow up the cable anchoring the Farah III but failed, he said.

Six guerrillas then ordered the 25-member crew off the ship into rebel boats and removed all communications, charts and radar equipment from the Jordanian vessel, he said.

The crew of 13 Jordanians and 11 Egyptians, skippered by Abdullah, an Iraqi national, arrived here late on Monday.

They said the rebels had held them after forcing them off their ship.

Abdullah denied rebel claims that the Tigers had rescued the crew and had tried to help them to repair their engines.

“They did not try to help,” Abdullah said, adding that the gunmen had fired four times into the air in a bid to scare his crew.

The ship was carrying a cargo of 14,000 tonnes of rice bound for Durban, South Africa.

The ship’s managers, the Amman-based Arab Shipping Co, valued the cargo at $10-12 million.

The Tigers made the crew get into small speed boats, which raced through choppy seas, Abdullah said.

Egyptian second officer Shareef Mohamed Mustafa, 30, hurt his back during the fast ride and was in a wheelchair at the news conference.

“They pushed us onto the floor of the boat and travelled at high speed. When the boat hit waves we were tossed about. I injured my back,” he said.

Sri Lanka’s navy said it knew the ship had engine trouble and had been trying to arrange a tug boat to tow it to a port for repairs but the Tigers intercepted the Egyptian vessel 27 kilometres from the coast.

The guerrillas have a history of attacking international merchant shipping in the area and killed 24 Chinese crew members on a fishing boat in 2003, naval spokesman S. M. Weerasekera said.—AFP