MORE WEAPONRY HIDDEN BY FLEEING TIGERS UNCOVERED
MULLAITTIVU: EXTENDED search and clear operations by the 58 Division troops in the liberated areas enabled the troops find more and more LTTE items including arms, ammunition explosives and other accessories meant for their terror activities. Three damaged 152 mm artillery guns, one hundred and twenty-seven T-56 weapons, three 40 mm grenade launchers, one FNC gun , four 130 mm bombs, two paddle guns, one thousand one hundred and eighty-four (1184) paddle gun ammunition, one paddle gun drum, one hundred and thirty rounds of 12.7 mm gun ammunition, one grenade launcher usually used in naval craft, ten RPGs (Rocket Propelled Guns), .....
MULLAITTIVU: SINCE this morning (16), a total of eleven thousand eight hundred and seventy six (11876) civilians from LTTE-held area reached the Army troops seeking protection. Out of the exodus, 4328 reached the 53 Division area while another 2548 reached the 58 Division area. 5000 being the largest number of escapees reported to the area under the control of 59 Division.
MULLAITTIVU: SENIOR LTTE leaders SWARNAM and SHASHI MASTER were reportedly killed during last legs of confrontations between the advancing troops and terrorists. SOOSAPILLAI JOSEPH ANTHONYDAS alias SWARNAM, born in April 1964 in TRINCOMALEE according to available information, was a senior leader of the organization. MITHIRAN SELVARATHNAM alias SASHIKUMAR MASTER, believed to be around 40 years when he was killed by the troops, was in charge of mapping and surveying section of the LTTE organization.
MULLAITTIVU: MORE THAN seventy LTTE terrorists including second-tier leaders were reportedly feared killed in a series of confrontations when those terrorists attempted to storm 59 Division troops held-areas away from the NANTHI KADAL lagoon using fast attack boats during early hours on Sunday (17). Remaining Tiger terrorists now finding it difficult to survive in the 1-2 square km patch were trying to cause the maximum damage to the troops by launching these lagoon-oriented assaults. At the time this report was filed troops were collecting the dead bodies of those Tigers. 
GARETH EVANS, the former Foreign Minister of Australia and the Chief Executive of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said that a democratic government had a legitimate right to eradicate terrorism. "I have no doubt the LTTE are terrorists and that Prabhakaran is a thug", he noted. Speaking at a seminar organized by the Royal Commonwealth Society titled "Sri Lanka : What Role for Global Actors", in London last week, he said that however, the Sri Lankan government had to abide by UN Conventions and Humanitarian issues. If a government failed to do that then the R2P principle would have to be enforced by the International Community.
HIS EXCELLENCY, the President MAHINDA RAJAPAKSA’s return to Sri Lanka from G-11 Summit in Jordan this morning (17) to a rousing welcome, offered by National flag-waving Ministers, politicians and well-wishers at the airport would go down in the annals of the contemporary history of Sri Lanka, perhaps as the one and only people’s leader to have respectfully venerated the ‘Mother Earth’ no sooner than he stepped out of the aircraft staircase. 
MULLAITTIVU: THREE LTTE Anti Aircraft Guns (AAG), two of them with two barrels and two Armoured Tanks (BMT) were among the latest recoveries, made by troops now in full control of almost all areas in PUTHUMATTALAN, MULLAITTIVU. Those three AAGs, popularly known as peddle guns alias ZPUs are capable of firing a maximum of around 600 rounds per minute and need to be kept on a four-wheel carriage for firing. They also can cover a range of about 8000 meters and are about 5-7 ft in height. Those were captured Sunday(17) morning. 