Sri Lanka state TV says Tamil Tigers rebel leader killed

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Sri Lanka's state television station announced Monday that Tamil Tiger rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran has been killed, and the army commander said the last pockets of rebel resistance have been cleared from the north. Prabhakaran's death would spell the end of a more than three-decade quest by the rebel leader for a separate state for minority Tamils across northern and eastern Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka's army chief, Lt. Gen. Sareth Fonseka, said 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.