Prabhakaran's body found: Sri Lankan army

T V Sriram

Colombo, May 19 (PTI) With a pro-LTTE website raising
questions over his death, the Sri Lankan army 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
told PTI.

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 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 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. PTI TVS
DEP