The Associated Press (AP) pulled out the Colombo dateline news item issued yesterday referring to 300 civilians killed and more than a 1,000 injured in current fighting in the Mullaitivu area.

The message sent to all AP subscribers to withdraw this story read as follows:

“COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Kill the Sri Lanka-Civil War Story, V5414. The source denies he wrote the letter that said more than 300 civilians had been killed and 1,000 wounded in fighting in northern Sri Lanka.”

The AP office in Colombo informed us that the story was withdrawn no sooner it received the item published on this website last evening headlined “Hoax about dead and injured in Mullaitivu exposed.”

It is learnt that AP also withdrew a misleading caption to photographs about the situation in the North where captions sent from Colombo had been edited in India to include figures of civilian deaths and injuries which were not in the original caption.

Editor’s Note: We appreciate the prompt action taken by the AP office in Colombo to withdraw the gross fabrication about civilian death and injuries which was used by some news agencies and relief organizations giving false picture of developments in the North.