The curtains came down on the 33-month-long Eelam War IV as the Sri Lankan military in the early hours of Monday decimated the military capabilities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, resulting in the death of at least 18 top leaders, presumably including the outfit’s chief Velupillai Prabakaran, in an intense battle that lasted nearly 22 hours.

The military commanders on the ground are unable to officially confirm the death of Prabakaran as they have not been able to trace him or his body in the continuing combing operations. They believe that a body burnt beyond recognition recovered from the battle zone could be that of Prabakaran.

This correspondent, the only foreign print journalist present inside the war zone, accompanied the top commanders as the bodies of the LTTE brass were brought in tractors by the soldiers for identification.

The bodies positively identified by the military included that of Charles Anthony, elder son of Prabakaran; the Tiger intelligence wing chief, Pottu Amman; the political wing head, B. Nadesan; and S. Pulithevan, in-charge of the Tigers’ peace secretariat.

Watch Video Prabhakaran dead body found

Prabhakaran picture  in his golden days

Velupillai Prabakaran at fatihsyuhud.com

Similar posts around the blogosphere:

• Pictures of Prabhakaran dead body (actually it’s the picture of his son NOT Prabhakaran’s)
  
• LTTE chief Prabhakaran’s dead body found
• Charles Antony, Prabakaran son, dead body
• LTTE Cheif Prabhakaran shot dead

Because of what might happen, no one wanted to come to Pakistan to play cricket anymore. Not Australia, not New Zealand, not India.

After months of security warnings and suicide attacks, and after the Mumbai attack in November caused the Indian team to back out of a planned tour, only Sri Lanka agreed to come and play the national team, against the advice of everyone else.

On Tuesday morning, as buses drove the Sri Lankan cricket team from a fancy hotel to the Gadhafi stadium in Lahore, about a dozen heavily armed gunmen attacked the buses with rifles, grenades and rocket launchers, killing six police officers and a driver and injuring seven players, an umpire and an assistant coach from Britain.

With this audacious attack on South Asia’s favorite sport, the severity of the crisis in Pakistan hit home for many people who never thought terrorism could hurt them. And South Asia was again reeling from a coordinated assault that reminded many of the recent attack on hotels and foreigners in Mumbai.