With a pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam web site raising questions over Velupillai Prabhakaran's death, the Sri Lankan army today released photographs of the guerilla's dead body
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was on Monday shot dead by Sri Lankan special forces as he tried to stage a dramatic breakout from the army encirclement, a military spokesman said.
He said the army has captured the entire Pudukudiriyirippu area that was under the control of the Tamil Tigers, who have lost many of their key leaders in the latest fighting. Important LTTE leaders killed in the clashes included Vidusha, Nagesh, Durga, Deepan and Patabi, Nanayakkara said, adding another senior rebel leader Banu was injured.
Amid widespread speculation about the whereabouts of the Tamil Tiger supremo, who has vowed not to be captured alive, the Lankan military on Monday said that Velupillai Prabhakaran could be at the centre stage of the battle with the army.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has lost yet another strong bastion to the marauding Sri Lankan forces.
Leader of Opposition of North-Central Provincial Assembly Maj Gen Janaka Perera and his wife are among the 20 killed, Army spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said.
At least 56 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadre and ten soldiers were killed in clashes between the Sri Lankan Army and the Tamil Tigers in rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi even as Lankan fighter jets sank an LTTE vessel and bombed rebel targets. "56 LTTE rebels were killed and 87 Tigers injured during the army offensive against the rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi," Army spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said.
Over 34 Tamil Tiger rebels and nine soldiers have been killed in a series of gun battles in Sri Lanka's embattled northern region, officials said in Colombo on Tuesday. Reacting to the stepped-up battles between the security forces and Tiger rebels, Nanayakkara said, "Since the LTTE has been incurring heavy losses in the recent weeks; they wanted to make their presence felt and are resorting to attacks."
"One of the military outposts at Thalgasmankada, located about 50 km south of Pottuvil, guarding the Yala national park came under the LTTE attack on Monday night. Six soldiers were killed and one more wounded," military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara told UNI over phone, adding that the military had repulsed the rebel attack.
At least three children were among 26 killed in the bombing, the latest in a string of attacks by the rebels amid spiralling fighting in the north which has claimed 300 lives in the two weeks since the government announced its decision to scrap the ceasefire.
Apparently emboldened by its recent military successes against the LTTE, the Sri Lankan government on Wednesday night decided to terminate the truce agreement with LTTE.
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