(Updates with background, details)

COLOMBO, May 24 (Reuters) - Tamil Tiger rebel boats, including suicide vessels, attacked an island housing a Sri Lankan naval base off the northern peninsula of Jaffna before dawn on Thursday, the navy said.

"We are confronting the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) on land and at sea. There were 15 boats, including three suicide boats, off Delft island in Jaffna," said navy spokesman Commander D.K.P. Dassanayake. "We have destroyed one boat."

He said it was unclear how many Tiger rebels had landed on the island. There were no details of any casualties or damage.

The Tigers were not immediately available for comment on the attack, which is the latest in a series of land and sea battles in recent months amid a new chapter in a two-decade civil war that has killed nearly 70,000 people since 1983.

Fighting is now focused on the north after the military captured the Tigers' eastern stronghold in recent months, but analysts say there is no clear winner on the horizon and fear the protracted conflict could rumble on for years.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced by the fighting, and Britain and the United States have both suspended some aid over human rights abuses.

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