Tamil Tiger rebel chief killed, says Sri Lankan army
Hurriyet Daily News with wires
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The army said its commandos had overrun the last sliver of Tiger territory, killing the last 300 fighters and decimating the rebel leadership. It said Prabhakaran and two top deputies, Soosai and Pottu Amman, tried to flee in a van, but were shot dead.
“All military operations have come to a stop,” army chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka was quoted as saying by the Agence France-Presse news agency. “Now the entire country is declared rid of terrorism,” Fonseka said, adding that the “dead bodies of terrorists are scattered over the last ditch." But the announcement cannot be verified as reporters, rights groups and international observers were barred from the war zone. And there had been no comment from rebels on the claims as Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review went to press yesterday.
Prabhakaran's death has been seen as crucial in bringing closure to this war-wracked Indian Ocean island nation. Decades-old conflict, one of Asia's oldest, have left more than 70,000 dead from pitched battles, suicide attacks, bomb strikes and assassinations. Still, his death in battle could turn him into a martyr for other Tamil separatists.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, emerged in the 1970s, with all-out war breaking out in the early 1980s as they pursued their struggle for an independent Tamil homeland on the Sinhalese-majority island.
Yesterday, officials said all rebel leaders were now dead. In a dramatic announcement, the Tamil guerrillas had acknowledged Sunday that their battle for an independent ethnic homeland had reached its “bitter end.”
Senior military officials said troops closed in on Prabhakaran and his final cadre early yesterday.
He and his top deputies then drove an armor-plated van accompanied by a bus filled with rebel fighters toward approaching Sri Lankan forces, sparking a two-hour firefight, the officials told the Associated Press, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Troops eventually fired a rocket at the van, ending the battle, they said.
Troops pulled Prabhakaran's body from the van and identified it as that of the rebel leader, they said. The attack also killed Soosai, the head of the rebels' naval wing, and Pottu Amman, the group's intelligence commander, the officials said.
The pro-rebel Tamil.net Web site said the LTTE leadership had appealed to the Red Cross to be evacuated, and that “initial reports indicate a determined massacre by the Sri Lanka Army.”
Suren Surendiran, a spokesman for the British Tamils' Forum, the largest organization for expatriate Tamils in Britain, said the community was in despair. "The people are very somber and very saddened. But we are ever determined and resilient to continue our struggle for Eelam," he said, invoking the name of the Tamils hoped-for independent state. "We have to win the freedom and liberation of our people."
But in Colombo, which had suffered countless rebel bombings, people set of fireworks, danced and sang in the streets.
“Myself and most of my friends gathered here have narrowly escaped bombs set off by the Tigers. Some of our friends were not so lucky,” said Lal Hettige, 47, a businessman celebrating in Colombo's outdoor market. “We are happy today to see the end of that ruthless terrorist organization and its heartless leader. We can live in peace after this.”