We are still collecting information on this breaking news. Please post any links in the comments section below. From VOA's Steve Herman, who has been on the ground in Sri Lanka for several weeks now.
By Steve Herman
Colombo
18 May 2009
The quarter-century civil war in Sri Lanka has come to a dramatic end. The army says it has wiped out the entire leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, including the founder-leader of the rebel group. And for the first time in 26 years, the government says all territory of the island nation is back under its control.
Sri Lanka's state-controlled broadcasters switched to patriotic programming and special reports to announce a total victory and that the military had vanquished the entire leadership of the rebel organization that had terrorized the island nation for decades.
"It has been revealed that the LTTE supremo, Velupillai Prabhakaran, has been killed owing to the attacks of the advancing troops today, in the morning," the announcement said.
Media reports say the rebel leader, along with other top commanders, was killed trying to flee in an ambulance. The Defense Ministry says the bodies are in the process of being identified and that 250 rebels were killed during the final burst of fighting Monday.
OBITUARIES (more to come - please come back soon):
- The Hindu: Ruthless Fighter for Eelam
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