ri Lanka's war against Tamil Tiger rebels has "ended successfully," the island's defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, told the
"We have successfully ended the war," he told President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is his brother and commander-in-chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces.
Sri Lankan military commanders also lined up and shook hands with him before starting closed-door talks.
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The meeting came as state television and defence officials announced that Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and the entire rebel leadership had been killed on Monday by government troops.
Sri Lanka's state television station announced on Monday that Tamil Tiger rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran has been killed, and the army commander said the last pockets of rebel resistance have been cleared from the north. (Watch )
Prabhakaran's death would spell the end of a more than three-decade quest by the rebel leader for a separate state for minority Tamils across northern and eastern Sri Lanka.
Rupavahini television, the state broadcaster, broke into its regular programming Monday afternoon to announce Prabakharan's death. They gave no details of how he was killed.
The government information department also sent a text message to cell phones across the country announcing Prabhakaran was killed along with his top deputies, who were known as Soosai and Pottu Amman.
Sri Lanka's army chief, Lt. Gen. Sareth Fonseka, told television his troops routed the last rebels from the northern war zone Monday morning and were working to identify Prabhakaran's body from among the dead.
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"We can announce very responsibly that we have liberated the whole country from terrorism," he told state television.
Prabhakaran was in a small convoy of a van and ambulance along with several close aides which tried to drive out of the battle zone, but was attacked and killed, the senior defence ministry official said.
"He was killed with two others inside the vehicle. There will be a formal announcement later," the official said on condition he not be named.
"When the troops opened fire, the van tried to get away, but it was also hit," said another high-level source from the military. "The vehicle caught fire."
The defence ministry said the rebels' leadership was decimated, heralding an end to their decades-old battle to carve out an independent ethnic homeland in the north of the island.
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