UN to offer Sri Lanka more assistance

COLOMBO - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is to offer further assistance to people displaced by Sri Lanka’s war, a senior UN official in Colombo said Friday as the government for the first time released updated military casualty figures.

Sri Lanka calls Pakistan ‘true friend’

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka has described Pakistan ‘as a true friend’ after Islamabad congratulated Colombo following the decimation of the Tamil Tigers.

Sri Lanka to open key highway in north

COLOMBO - The A9 highway linking Jaffna peninsula in north Sri Lanka and the town of Kandy in the centre of the country is likely to be opened to the general public by next week, the government said.

After Prabhakaran: Will Sri Lanka finally have peace? (Comment)

The dramatic albeit gory footage of a dead Velupillai Prabhakaran with a bullet hole through his forehead marks the end of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a feared terrorist organisation.

Refugee status in Sri Lanka very critical, says Red Cross

COLOMBO - More than 200,000 refugees are facing ‘very critical’ circumstances in northern Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the recent war, the Red Cross said.

Prabhakaran was with 18 men when he was killed: Karuna

NEW DELHI’ - Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was with 18 of his most loyal bodyguards when he was trapped and killed by the Sri Lankan military’ one of his former rebel associates told IANS Wednesday.

End of war in Sri Lanka welcomed amid concerns about human cost

COLOMBO - Celebrations to mark the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war were planned on a national holiday Wednesday as the international community welcomed the end to fighting. But some countries expressed concerns about the human cost of the conflict’s end phase.

Prabhakaran: the man is dead, the myth destroyed (Comment)

Velupillai Prabhakaran may not have visualised his own macabre end as a mud-covered and practically naked corpse on a makeshift stretcher, but that is how it turned out to be. Despite the inherently cruel voyeurism of officially publishing the pictures of his body, Sri Lanka had to do so if only to prevent mythologies from being built around someone whose childhood hero was ‘Phantom: the ghost who walks’.

Prabhakaran’s body found, Rajapaksa says LTTE vanquished

COLOMBO - The Sri Lankan government Tuesday displayed the battered body of Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, shortly after the rebels claimed he was still alive, while President Mahinda Rajapaksa formally announced the end of the dragging ethnic conflict and offered a political settlement acceptable to all communities.

Sri Lankan president announces end of civil war, Prabhakaran’s body found

COLOMBO - Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa Tuesday officially announced the end of the over 25-year-old civil war against Tamil rebels as the army’s commander said the body of rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran has been positively identified.

Prabhakaran’s body found: military chief

COLOMBO - The body of Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran has been found, the Sri Lankan defence ministry said Tuesday. The state-run TV showed the body kept on a stretcher.

Victory over LTTE is for whole country: Sri Lankan president

COLOMBO - The victory ‘achieved by defeating the LTTE’ is the victory of the entire country, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said while addressing parliament here Tuesday. He did not mention that death of rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in his speech.

LTTE vanquished, victory for our country: Sri Lankan president

COLOMBO - The victory ‘achieved by defeating the LTTE’ is the victory of the country, Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa said while addressing parliament here Tuesday, adding the Tamil Tigers had killed statesmen like former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

LTTE’s defeat is victory for country: Sri Lankan president

COLOMBO - The victory ‘achieved by defeating the LTTE’ is the victory of the country, Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa said while addressing parliament Tuesday.

Prabhakaran alive, claims pro-LTTE website

COLOMBO - Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran is ‘alive and safe’, a website sympathetic to the rebels claimed Tuesday.

UN chief to visit Sri Lanka Friday

COLOMBO - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to visit Sri Lanka Friday to assess the humanitarian situation after an estimated 250,000 civilians fled the Tamil rebel controlled areas in the north of the country, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said Monday.

Sri Lanka’s 26-year war ends as LTTE leader Prabhakaran killed

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka’s 26-year-long insurgency ended with a blaze of bullets as Velupillai Prabhakaran, the dreaded chief of the Tamil Tigers that was responsible for assassinating Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and several leaders of the island nation, was killed Monday while trying to flee the battle zone.

Death blow for LTTE as Prabhakaran, aides killed in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO - Velupillai Prabhakaran, the feared leader of Sri Lanka’s ruthless Tamil Tigers, was killed Monday while trying to flee the battle zone in the island’s north with two top aides, ending one of the world’s longest running insurgencies that bled the island nation for over a quarter century.

Celebrations in Sri Lanka as news of Prabhakaran’s death spreads

COLOMBO - LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran’s death, bringing down the curtains on his 25-year-old armed struggle for a separate Tamil state, sparked off celebrations in the island nation Monday.

LTTE defeated, Sri Lanka free from terror: army chief

COLOMBO - Sri Lankan armed forces have ‘militarily defeated the LTTE and freed the nation from three decades of terror’, army chief Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka said Monday after Tamil Tigers leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed in the island’s north.

Prabhakaran, top aides killed in Sri Lanka’s war zone

COLOMBO - Velupillai Prabhakaran, the elusive leader of Sri Lanka’s feared Tamil Tigers, was killed Monday while trying to escape the battlezone in the island’s north along with two of his top aides, the military announced.

Prabhakaran: From catapult killer to ruthless insurgent (Obituary)

NEW DELHI - His first victims were squirrels and birds, and his first weapon a humble catapult. From such beginnings, Velupillai Prabhakaran — who died ignonominiously Monday — grew to be the world’s most shadowy and ruthless insurgent who at one time lorded over vast areas in Sri Lanka’s northeast.

LTTE chief Prabhakaran is dead: reports

COLOMBO - Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed Monday while trying to escape the war zone in the island’s north, reports said quoting military officials.

LTTE chief Prabhakaran is dead

COLOMBO - Velupillai Prabhakaran, the elusive leader of Sri Lanka’s feared Tamil Tigers, was killed Monday while trying to escape the war zone in the island’s north, military sources said.

Bodies of Prabhakaran’s son, six LTTE leaders found

COLOMBO - In a macabre end to one of the world’s longest running insurgencies, the bodies of Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran’s son and six key rebel leaders have been found in a war-battered strip of Sri Lanka’s northern coast, the government said Monday.

Bodies of Prabhakaran’s son, three LTTE leaders found

COLOMBO - A body suspected to be of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran’s elder son Charles Anthony and the bodies of three senior rebel leaders, including the outfit’s political head B. Nadesan, were found by the Sri Lankan troops Monday during operations in the island’s north, the defence ministry said.

Body of Prabhakaran’s son found

COLOMBO - Sri Lankan troops Monday found a body suspected to be of Tamil Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran’s son Charles Anthony, a media report said.

Body of Prabhakaran’s son found: Defence ministry

COLOMBO - A body believed to be of Charles Anthony, the son of Tamil Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, has been recovered by the army during clearing operations in northeastern Sri Lanka, the defence ministry said Monday.

LTTE: A Chronology

COLOMBO - The following is the chronology of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which Sunday announced an end to its armed struggle for an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka.

LTTE ends armed struggle; questions remain about Prabhakaran

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger guerrillas announced dramatically Sunday they were calling off their quarter-century long armed struggle citing the deaths of thousands of civilians as speculation gripped the country that the elusive Velupillai Prabhakaran may be dead.