This Article is From May 19, 2009

DNA tests prove Prabhakaran is dead: Lankan govt

DNA tests prove Prabhakaran is dead: Lankan govt

AFP image

Colombo: The Sri Lankan government on Tuesday said the DNA tests have proved that Prabhakaran has been killed.

PTI adds:
With a pro-LTTE website raising questions over his death, the Sri Lankan army on Tuesday said Velupillai Prabhakaran's body has been found.

"Prabhakaran's body was found near Nandikadal lagoon (in the No Fire Zone)," military spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said.

He said Prabhakaran was in uniform and there were bullet wounds on his head.

Military officials, giving details of the encounter in which the LTTE chief was killed on Monday, said that Prabhakaran and his two top commanders, Pottu Amman and sea Tiger chief Soosai, drove out of their hideout in an armoured vehicle escorted by his armed cadres in an ambulance.

They tried to drive through the security cordon of army, triggering a 2-hour battle, which ended when troops targeted the vehicle with a rocket and later took out the bodies.

Prabhakaran's body, the officials said on Monday, bore
burn marks apparently due to the direct impact of the rocket on the vehicle which was carrying the LTTE chief.

However, the pro-rebel Tamilnet website claimed that Prabhakaran was still "alive and safe".

"I wish to inform the global Tamil community distressed witnessing the final events of the war that our beloved leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is alive and safe," LTTE's International Relations head S Pathmanathan was quoted as saying by the website.
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