M A I N   N E W S

14 LTTE rebels killed in Jaffna

COLOMBO, June 4 (PTI, AFP) — The Sri Lankan army today claimed to have killed 14 LTTE rebels in close encounters in three different places in the northern Jaffna peninsula.

An official press note here said troops in ambush at Kadadiyankadu spotted eight rebels while they were on a route-clearing operation. In the subsequent fight involving claymore mines and small arms, troops killed all rebels.

In another incident in the same area, three guerrillas were killed by the soldiers.

Also a ‘fighting patrol’ of the army encountered three rebels at Vempotukerni and killed all of them, the press note said. All three incidents took place yesterday.

Meanwhile, LTTE rebels allegedly abducted two men and seized three fighting boats in the eastern Batticaloa district yesterday. They were demanding ransom for their release.

Sri Lankan air force jets pounded suspected Tamil rebel targets near the Jaffna peninsula as civilians who fled the regional Capital trickled back to their homes, officials said.

Air force jets bombed Pooneryn and Sangupiddy areas just south of the Jaffna peninsula, officials said, adding that there were no immediate reports of casualties.

The air strikes came as Junior Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte said another 4,000 soldiers were being sent to resist rebel attempts to re-capture the peninsula they lost to government forces in December, 1995.

Local officials in Jaffna said families who left Jaffna town two weeks ago were trickling back as fighting lessened in the past week, with the military saying it had halted the Tigers’ “rolling offensive”.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Government has said it will reinforce its navy with more Israel-made missile-fitted combat craft along with equipping the army with new ground weapons from Europe.

“Israel has agreed to supply the new combat craft, whose missiles have a range of 36 km,” state-run newspaper the Daily News reported today.

5 hacked to death in Bihar

NAWADA, (Bihar), June 4 (PTI) — In the second massacre in a fortnight, five persons, including a woman, belonging to backward Yadava community were hacked to death in sleep by unidentified assailants at a village in Bihar’s Nawada district late last night, a police official said today.

Heavily-armed marauders raided Rajiv Bigha village under Pakribarwan police station and butchered the five villagers with sharp-edged weapons, Zonal Inspector General of Police (Patna range) Neelmani said.

Those killed were identified as Amrit Yadav (45), Kamo Yadav (35), Sudho Yadav (22), Sikha Devi (45), and Pintoo Kumar (12), he said here. One was seriously injured in the attack and admitted to hospital.

Eleven persons have so far been detained for interrogation and raids continued to arrest the killers.

A fortnight back, 11 people were gunned down at Balaghat in Lakhisarai district of the state.

RJD President Laloo Prasad Yadav, accompanied by some state ministers, visited Rajiv Bigha and said the state government would provide Rs 1 lakh to each family of the victims and construct houses.

Chief Minister Rabri Devi condemned the incident and directed the district administration to arrest the culprits immediately.