The Tamil Tiger rebels’ ( LTTE) leader Velupillai Prabhakaran has been killed after being surrounded, Sri Lankan state TV says. The Associated Press (AP) has reported : “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.”
BBC adds: “To his followers, Vellupillai Prabhakaran was a freedom fighter struggling for Tamil emancipation. To his adversaries he was a secretive megalomaniac with a complete disregard for human life. Under his leadership, the Tamil Tigers became one of the world’s most highly-disciplined and highly-motivated guerrilla forces. But in recent months they fought a desperate rearguard action as the Sri Lankan military inflicted defeat after defeat on them, ending their dream of a separate homeland in the north and east.”
