WORLD BRIEFING / SRI LANKA
The defeated Tamil Tiger rebels confirmed that their supreme leader was killed in the group’s final battle against Sri Lankan troops.
Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the Tamil Tiger’s international spokesman, announced that Velupillai Prabhakaran had “attained martyrdom fighting the military oppression of the Sri Lankan government.”
The rebel leader died in a battle on the island’s northeast coast.
Pathmanathan said the group had declared a week of mourning for Prabhakaran starting today and urged the Tamil people to “restrain from harmful acts to themselves or anyone else in this hour of extreme grief.”
Prabhakaran led the Tamil insurrection in Sri Lanka for more than a quarter century. The rebellion is estimated to have cost more than 70,000 lives.
Before the Tigers’ announcement, many Tamils had questioned the veracity of the military’s claims about his death.
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