Heavy fighting erupted between the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in Mu’l'likku’lam area in Mannaar Thursday morning around 6:30 a.m. The fighting continued throughout the evening. Seven SLA soldiers wounded in LTTE artillery fire were rushed to Anuradhapura hospital, medical sources said. LTTE officials said the Tigers have put up stiff resistance inflicting casualties upon the SLA.

the UNP MP said that the killing of political wing leader S.P. Thamilchelvan will weaken the LTTE political section. However, he said that undermining the political wing could mean strengthening of military wing and said the country should be vigilant.

Marxist party MP Vijitha Herath said the killing of LTTE political wing leader is a major victory for the entire Sri Lankan community

 

 The funeral of the five leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is scheduled to be held on Monday November 05 in Kilinochchi, sources said.

Political Wing chief of the LTTE, S.P. Thamilchelvan and another five senior LTTE leaders were killed in a Sri Lanka Air Force air raid on November 02.

Velupillai Prabhakaran, the elusive leader of the LTTE, paid his last respects to the slain LTTE leaders Friday evening

“Though the Anuradhapura airbase attack by the LTTE is a major incident, it must not be used to belittle the military successes in the recent past,” the Agriculture Minister, told the media.

Addressing the media at Seth Sevana in Kirillapone on Wednesday, Minister Hemakumara Nanayakkara said the LTTE has resorted to acts of sabotage to rebuild the morale of its cadres who are desperate to regain lost ground.

While appreciating the Government of the United States’ goodwill and interest in relation to “improving human rights, accountability, and the rule of law, and ultimately resolving the conflict in Sri Lanka,” the government in a letter to the US Ambassador in Colombo Robert Blake has reiterated that an international monitoring mission in Sri Lanka is at the moment unwarranted and unacceptable.
Human Rights Minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe has in the letter, stressed that the government would actively engage with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in seeking technical advice and support in order to strengthen capacities of its local institutional framework for the better protection of human rights in the country.

Six Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers were killed and four wounded in a mine blast at Kalmadu in Vavuniyaa Friday around 12:30 p.m., initial reports from Vavuniyaa said. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense officials told media said the explosion was “accidental”. The soldiers were blown to pieces when they were cheking the pressure mines, which were cleared from the Northern FDL and brought to Kalmadu, according to the military officials in Colombo

A 27-year-old employee of a popular Insurance Corporation in Jaffna was shot dead by unknown gunmen riding a motorbike near Brown Road within Jaffna Municipal boundary at 8:45 a.m. Friday, sources in Jaffna said. The victim, Kanagarajah Pratheepan, is the brother of journalist, Kanagarajah Prasaanth.Pratheepan is from Vithaanaiyaar Road, Kokuvil East Jaffna. He was on his way to work when he was shot dead.

Pratheepan body is in Jaffna Teaching Hospital waiting postmortem examinations.

. Sporadic clashes in northern Sri Lanka continued yesterday killing at least 15 Tiger rebels including a female LTTE leader as the government vowed to continue the military operations in the North.

The rebels were killed as they attempted to enter a military-controlled area in Kaduruvitankulam in Vavuniya yesterday evening.

In a separate incident earlier in the day ten Tigers were killed when the troops on a foot patrol accidentally discovered an LTTE bunker in the same general area at Narikulam.

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 The shortage of milk powder is still prevailing in Sri Lanka markets. Milk powder industry sources says that the distributors for comparatively smaller markets are keeping away from importing due to lack of profits caused by price control.

There were some 13 players in the market earlier but only six major companies remain now. They say that the price of a 400 grams milk powder packet needed to be raised further at least by Rs. 90.

Sri Lanka government has controlled milk powder price and the maximum price for a 400 grams packet is Rs. 195. Government waived the Rs. 50 per kilo import duty for milk powder as a last straw to keep the prices down.