COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Fighting between Tamil Tiger separatists and government forces in northern Sri Lanka killed at least 41 people and injured 45 others Monday, reports said.
The media center for national security said 35 rebels and six soldiers were killed in exchanges in the northern part of the country, Press Trust of India reported.
In Colombo, the defense ministry reported a three-pound, shrapnel-filled bomb had been recovered and dismantled from a street leading into the district where top politicians and officials live, the report said.
"It is suspected that those who got the bomb into the high security zone had left it on the road due to the massive search operation presently (under) way in Colombo and its suburbs," the ministry said in a statement.
The city is on high alert after two bombings last Wednesday killed 20 civilians, the report said.
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