Fresh clashes in Lanka as monitors begin pulling out

Sri Lankan security forces clashed with Tamil Tiger separatists and exchanged artillery fire in the north as Norwegian-led monitors began pulling out before a truce runs out, officials said yesterday.
The defence ministry said at least 10 guerrillas were killed and a soldier wounded in fighting since Saturday along a de facto border marking rebel-held territory.
The fresh clashes came as the Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission said it was winding down its operations before a February 2002 truce brokered by Norway formally ends on January 16.
The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said they lost the head of an intelligence unit following a mine attack carried out by government forces who infiltrated a rebel-held area on Saturday.
Shanmuganathan Ravishankar, who holds the guerrilla rank of colonel, was killed along with three other Tigers, the pro-rebel website Tamilnet.com said.
Sri Lankan officials have denied carrying out attacks inside rebel-held territory, but said there had been heavy long-range exchanges of fire in the region since the truce was formally declared dead last week.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's top advisor on the peace process quit Sunday, after the government scrapped an Oslo-brokered truce with Tamil Tiger rebels.
Jayantha Dhanapala, a diplomat and former candidate for the post of UN secretary general who was appointed as peace advisor in December 2005, said he was quitting for "personal reasons," in a statement released by his office.
The move followed the government's decision to withdraw from a 2002 truce, despite mounting international concern that the island's military could slip back into full-scale war with Tiger guerrillas.
Close confidants of Dhanapala said he was embarrassed by the turn of events, with the government pressing for a military victory after scoring several battlefield successes against the rebels last year.
There was no immediate reaction from the government, which last week announced it would quit the moribund truce from January 16.
Dhanapala had also served as head of the government's peace secretariat, which coordinated the Norwegian-led peace efforts with Tamil separatists to end the decades-long conflict, which has killed tens of thousands.
The government scrapped the truce agreement, which automatically also ends the truce monitoring mission, and gave the mandatory two weeks' notice to pull out.
In the capital Colombo, the government on Sunday heightened already tight security arrangements.
Motorists said all vehicles entering or leaving the city of 650,000 people were being checked one by one, causing long queues and traffic snarls.
According to government figures, 48 rebels have died in separate clashes since the start of the year and three soldiers have been killed.
There was no comment from the rebels, who are fighting for an independent homeland for minority Tamils in the island's north and east.
Independent verification of casualty figures is not possible as journalists are not allowed into rebel-held areas. Both sides are known to make sharply varying casualty claims.
Tens of thousands of people have died since the conflict erupted in 1972.