The SLMM says there three incidents of firing in the area during the last five days.

However the Tamil Tigers had denied firing at the Naval vessels. Tamil Tiger political leader of Trincomalee Elillen said the Navy had fired at the villagers without provocation. He also claimed there were casualties among the villagers.

The Military sokesman says the Tamil Tigers "Directed fire at a Naval boat when it was closing in on two suspicious boats sailing in the restricted sea off the Trincomalee harbour on Monday around 11.45 a.m."

Security forces say the Naval troops were on patrol in the Sampoor bay after observing the two strange boat movements inside the restricted area closer to the Trincomalee harbour were reaching them to investigate into the illegal entry when the Navy came under LTTE small arms fire.

However, the sailors on the boat were compelled to retaliated the fire at the direction of LTTE fire in self-defence. No injuries were reported to naval troops in the incident. The SLMM has been informed about the incident.

Sri Lanka monitoring Mission spokeswoman Helen Olafdottir said that they are investigating third incident happened within the last five days. "on the very first occassion I can assure you there was no firing from the LTTE side. One of our observers was in the governemnt Navy craft. His report says that it was only the Navy who opened fire." she added.

"But in the second incident it was defenitely a gun battle between the two parties. Today, we were informed about the incident. When our observer arrived, it was already over. So, it is not sure who fired the shots. We will investigate further." she added.

"regardless of who to be blamed, it is important to understand that both parties should refrain from undertaking and provocational acts. both parties must act with responsibility." said the SLMM spokeswoman.

These kind of incident can be damaging to the peace process, says the SLMM. "With the next round of talks coming up soon, we must urge both sides to act with responsibility".