Sri Lanka rebel leader shot dead

The leader of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels, his son and other rebel commanders, Sri Lankan state television announced today.

News of Velupillai Prabhakaran’s death came as the Government claimed to have seized control of the entire island state for the first time in 26 years, ending Asia's longest-running war. Prabhakaran was ambushed and shot dead while trying to flee government troops as special forces closed in on the last rebel held area, a tiny patch of jungle in the north east. The head of the Sri Lankan army Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka said on television the army had defeated the rebels and "liberated the entire country". "Today we finished the work handed to us by the president to liberate the country from the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)," Gen Fonseka said in the broadcast, quoted by the BBC. Troops were still working to officially identify Prabhakaran's body from among the dead and none of the claims can be verified because the country has barred journalists.

This morning, fighting had continued to rage in the north east of the country despite the Tigers' admission of defeat on Sunday. Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, army spokesman, told The Times newspaper that commando units and other crack government troops were trading machine gun fire with “a couple of hundred” of Tiger fighters hunkered down in fortified bunkers, thought to include several senior rebel leaders. The conflict area had been reduced to a patch of land just 100 metres by 100 metres, he added. Tens of thousands of civilians who had been caught in the crossfire were finally allowed to flee to freedom over the weekend.

A senior defence official said Prabhakaran had been killed while trying to flee the area in an ambulance with two close aides. "He was killed with two others inside the vehicle," the official told Agence France Press news agency. The government said that they had found the body of Prabhakaran's 24 year old son Charles Anthony, the heir apparent of the Tigers’ leadership. There is still widespread international concern about civilians who may have been caught up in the fighting. Sources in the UN say significant numbers of civilians were still in the combat zone but the Sri Lankan government said all civilians had left.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict and thousands displaced.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children