Sri Lanka's rebel leader 'killed' 斯里兰卡叛军首领“被杀”

The leader of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels, Velupillai Prabhakaran, has been killed, the military says.

斯里兰卡军队称，泰米尔猛虎组织叛军的首领Velupillai Prabhakaran被杀。

It said Prabhakaran - along with two of his top commanders - had died while trying to flee from the last rebel-held patch of jungle in the north-east.

The military said it had crushed the Tamil Tigers' 26-year insurgency¹, as people around the country celebrated².

No photos of Prabhakaran's body have been released. The army says it is working to identify it among the dead.

The claims cannot be verified as reporters are barred from the war zone.

European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels condemned³ civilian⁴ casualties and called for an inquiry⁵ into alleged⁶（被说成的，被指称的） war crimes by both sides.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's office said he was planning to visit Sri Lanka, without providing any further details.

UN humanitarian⁷ aid chief John Holmes said the priority was to evacuate⁸（疏散，撤离） all the civilians⁹ caught up in the fighting.

"Obviously, we're relieved that the fighting is finished and hope that all the civilians are indeed out of that zone, and indeed are heading towards safety, but it's hard for us to be absolutely sure about that for the moment," he said.

Ambush¹⁰

Over the past few weeks Sri Lankan forces routed the rebels, overrunning their territory.

In the past few days, the LTTE had been hemmed¹¹（缝边，包围） into a 300 sq m (3,230 sq ft) patch of land - a tiny part of the 15,000 sq km territory they had controlled until recently.

Army chief Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka said on Monday: "Today we finished the work handed to us by the president to liberate¹² the country from the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)."

Military officials said Prabhakaran had been killed along with his intelligence chief Pottu Amman and Soosai, the head of the rebels' naval¹³ wing.

They were trying to flee advancing government troops when their vehicle was ambushed¹⁴（埋伏袭击）, the officials said.

They added that Prabhakaran's burnt body had been recovered and that DNA¹⁵ tests were under way.

The government's information department sent news of Prabhakaran's death by text message to mobile phones across the country.

Later on Monday, the heads of the three armed services were shown on national television shaking hands with President Mahinda Rajapakse.

No official statement was issued, but AFP news agency quoted the defence minister as saying: "We have successfully ended the war."

The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says there have been jubilant（扬声欢呼的，喜洋洋的） celebrations in the streets and national flags are flying off the shelves.

Earlier, at least three senior rebel leaders were killed, including Prabhakaran's eldest¹⁶ son, Charles Anthony, the military said.

State TV broadcast images of what it said was Charles Anthony's body.

The military said 250 Tamil Tigers had been also killed overnight.

Under Prabhakaran, the Tigers assassinated¹⁷（暗杀） several Sri Lankan political leaders and the former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi.

The LTTE was branded a terrorist organisation¹⁸ by many countries, and Prabhakaran was wanted by Interpol - the global police network - for murder, terrorism, organised crime and conspiracy¹⁹（阴谋）.