Sri Lanka wins civil war,
Sri Lanka declared total victory on Monday in one of the world's most intractable wars, after killing the separatist Tamil Tigers' leader and taking control of the entire country for the first time since 1983.
In a climactic gunbattle, special forces troops killed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran as he tried to flee the war zone in an ambulance early on Monday, state television reported.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa had already declared victory on Saturday, even as the final battle in Asia's longest modern war was intensifying after the last of 72,000 civilians held in the war.
Background on 25-year conflict in Sri Lanka
GEOGRAPHY: A tropical island off India's southern tip. Capital is Colombo. Plantations of coconut, rubber, tea, cinnamon and other spices, with large, sparsely inhabited areas of forest and scrub in its 25,500 square miles (66,000 square kilometers).
PEOPLE: About 20 million: 74 percent Sinhalese, 18 percent Tamil, 7 percent Muslim. Most Sinhalese are Buddhists, while Tamils are predominantly Hindus or Christians.
CONFLICT: Tamil rebels began fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland, accusing the majority Sinhalese of systematic discrimination. The main rebel group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), began as a guerrilla organization. By the mid-1990s, the LTTE had a conventional army that was able to fight the Sri Lankan military. The group also used suicide bombs to kill prominent leaders, including former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa. The conflict killed at least 70,000 people.
THE LAST BATTLE?: The government says it wiped out the rebels' top leadership on the battlefield Monday, ending the war. However, the group is widely believed to have sleeper cells around the country, an extensive weapons smuggling network and the support of Tamils abroad.
Sri Lanka declared total victory on Monday in one of the world's most intractable wars, after killing the separatist Tamil Tigers' leader and taking control of the entire country for the first time since 1983.
In a climactic gunbattle, special forces troops killed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran as he tried to flee the war zone in an ambulance early on Monday, state television reported.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa had already declared victory on Saturday, even as the final battle in Asia's longest modern war was intensifying after the last of 72,000 civilians held in the war.
Background on 25-year conflict in Sri Lanka
GEOGRAPHY: A tropical island off India's southern tip. Capital is Colombo. Plantations of coconut, rubber, tea, cinnamon and other spices, with large, sparsely inhabited areas of forest and scrub in its 25,500 square miles (66,000 square kilometers).
PEOPLE: About 20 million: 74 percent Sinhalese, 18 percent Tamil, 7 percent Muslim. Most Sinhalese are Buddhists, while Tamils are predominantly Hindus or Christians.
CONFLICT: Tamil rebels began fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland, accusing the majority Sinhalese of systematic discrimination. The main rebel group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), began as a guerrilla organization. By the mid-1990s, the LTTE had a conventional army that was able to fight the Sri Lankan military. The group also used suicide bombs to kill prominent leaders, including former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa. The conflict killed at least 70,000 people.
THE LAST BATTLE?: The government says it wiped out the rebels' top leadership on the battlefield Monday, ending the war. However, the group is widely believed to have sleeper cells around the country, an extensive weapons smuggling network and the support of Tamils abroad.
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