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Tamil Tiger Leader Reportedly Killed

By RAVI NESSMAN

posted: 1 HOUR 41 MINUTES AGO

comments: 79

filed under: World News

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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (May 18) - Sri Lanka declared Monday it had crushed the final resistance of the Tamil Tigers, killing rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and ending his three decade quest for an independent homeland for minority Tamils.

Rupavahini television, the state broadcaster, broke into its regular programming Monday afternoon to announce Prabhakaran's death. They gave no details of how he was killed. The government information department also sent a text message to cell phones across the country announcing Prabhakaran was killed along with his top deputies, who were known as Soosai and Pottu Amman.

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Prabhakaran's death or capture was crucial in bringing closure to this war-wracked Indian Ocean island nation. If had escaped, he could have used his large international smuggling network and the support of Tamil expatriates to spark a new round of guerrilla warfare here. His death in battle could still turn him into a martyr for other Tamil separatists.

Sri Lanka's army chief, Lt. Gen. Sareth Fonseka, told television his troops routed the last rebels from the northern war zone Monday morning and were working to identify Prabhakaran's body from among the dead.

"We can announce very responsibly that we have liberated the whole country from terrorism," he told state television. It was widely presumed Fonseka was waiting for President Mahinda Rajapaksa to announce Prabhakaran's death.

Fonseka and the commanders of the other security forces were to formally inform the president of the victory Monday afternoon, according to the information department.

Senior military officials said Prabhakaran was surrounded early Monday with the last of his fighters.

He and his top deputies drove in an armor-plated van accompanied by a bus filled with armed rebels toward approaching Sri Lankan forces, sparking a two-hour firefight, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

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Troops eventually fired a rocket at the van, ending the battle, the officials said. Troops then pulled Prabhakaran's body from the van and identified it as that of the rebel leader, they said.

There was no immediate comment from rebel leaders abroad on the announcement of their leader's death.

The chubby, mustachioed Prabhakaran turned what was little more than a street gang in the late 1970s into one of the world's most feared insurgencies. He demanded unwavering loyalty and gave his followers vials of cyanide to wear around their chest and bite into in case of capture.

At the height of his power, he controlled a shadow state in northern Sri Lankan and commanded a force that including an infantry, backed by artillery, a significant naval wing and a nascent air force.

He also controlled a suicide squad known as the Black Tigers that was blamed for scores of deadly attacks. The rebels were branded a terror group and condemned for forcibly conscripting child soldiers.

Earlier, the military announced it had killed several top rebel leaders, including Prabhakaran's son Charles Anthony, also a rebel leader. The military said special forces also found the bodies of the rebels' political wing leader, Balasingham Nadesan, the head of the rebels' peace secretariat, Seevaratnam Puleedevan, and one of the top military leaders, known as Ramesh.

The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for a separate state for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority after years of marginalization at the hands of the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.

Government forces ousted the rebels from their shadow state in the north in recent months and brought the group to its knees. Thousands of civilians were reportedly killed in the recent fighting.

Senior diplomats had appealed for a humanitarian cease-fire in recent weeks to safeguard the tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the war zone, but the government refused and many here grew angry at what they saw as unwanted foreign interference.

On Monday, more than a thousand angry Sri Lankans protested outside the British Embassy in Colombo, pelting it with rocks and eggs and burning an effigy of British Foreign Minister David Miliband and throwing it inside the compound. Protesters held posters calling Miliband a "white Tiger," and several tried to climb the embassy's high walls.

On Sunday, thousands gathered in the streets of Colombo to dance, sing and let off fireworks as rebel official Selvarasa Pathmanathan admitted the group's defeat.

"This battle has reached its bitter end," Pathmanathan said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. "It is our people who are dying now from bombs, shells, illness and hunger. We cannot permit any more harm to befall them. We remain with one last choice — to remove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people. We have decided to silence our guns."

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Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

2009-05-16 11:30:37

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RedRoses941

08:43 AMMay 18 2009

Its good to wake up and read this pig is finally dead.

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ARMIRM

07:52 AMMay 18 2009

Kill every terrorist (aka: rebel, militant, insurgent) and let God sort them out.

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07:21 AMMay 18 2009

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BIBLEBLAKTYRANT

04:27 AMMay 18 2009

Just good to hear someones war could be at an end theses days.

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Bcleibara

03:56 AMMay 18 2009

i'm wondering why did the shri lankan government allowed this insurgengy to go on for 25yrs before finally crushing it? were they (government) afraid of what the international community might say? 70,000 lives were lost because of the government's indecissiveness

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Dchazz77

03:49 AMMay 18 2009

Mareslaig.You can't blame the U.S. on this one. China has given Shi Lanka 1 billion in aid this last year. U.S - 7.4 million. China is building a huge commercial and naval base in Shi Lanka. It's part of their expansion of their sphear of influence and protection of oil and trade routes in the Indian Ocean. Those are Chinese made weapons being used by Shi Lanka.

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Ndbrooks12779050

03:36 AMMay 18 2009

MarcatSB, the Indians have been sending Tamils to Sri Lanka for years, despite the fact the Sinhalese-led government is known for its mistreatment of minorities. Not that the Tigers were any better, though.

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Mareslaig

03:06 AMMay 18 2009

Some of you people are nuts! WTF are you talking about? This civil war is a 25 year tragedy! Both sides should have come to conclusion years ago. Frankly, Tamil should have its own nation. Wonder what kind of dirty hand America lended to Sri Lanka?

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TrekkinBob

03:00 AMMay 18 2009

Who gives a fvck what the Pope thinks about this. He should keep his pointy hat out of conflicts like this. He's done enough damage in Africa by denying that condoms are effective against AIDS. He's and the rest of his 80 yr old virgin heirarchy are more irrelevant with each passing day.

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