Colombo: Defense functionaries stated that at least 14 associates of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and five soldiers of the Sri Lankan armed forces were killed in fights in the country’s northern division.

In Vavuniya district’s Kadirakulam region, six LTTE rebels were killed on Friday, when the government military personnel and the rebels collided.

Three soldiers died in the encounter.

At least eight LTTE rebels were killed in two separate crashes in Vavuniya’s Kallikulam region earlier the same day.

When a roadside bomb strikes a military bus at Point Pedro in the northern Jaffna peninsula around 9 p.m. on Friday, two soldiers were killed and seven others were wounded.

Crashes in the island’s nationalist armed clash have now transferred to the north after the administration in mid July laid claim that the LTTE rebels had been entirely forced out from the eastern region.

Early this month, the armed forces told that that a key rebel position in the northern Mannar region had also been captured from rebel control. Over 5,000 people have died in the increase of the clash since the end of 2005.

The Norwegian backed up direct discussions process and the February 2002 ceasefire now remains only on paper.