Srilanka wins the war LTTE chief commits suicide

The Sri Lankan President has finally declared victory in civil war.The statement was issued as the Sri Lankan government was moving in for a final push today in its 26-year civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) after announcing that all civilians had been evacuated from the rebels' tiny enclave on the north-east coast of the island.

The LTTE, who once controlled a major state across much of the north, have been fighting since 1983 for a separate state for minority Tamils after decades of marginalization by the Sinhalese majority. Responsible for hundreds of suicide attacks _ including the 1991 assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi _ the Tamil Tigers have been branded terrorists by the U.S., E.U. and India and shunned internationally.

The U.N. says 7,000 civilians were killed and 16,700 wounded from Jan. 20 through May 7. Since then, health officials say more than 1,000 civilians have been killed in a week of heavy shelling that rights groups and foreign governments have blamed on Sri Lankan forces.

The Lankan army claims Prabhakaran is dead.Sri Lankan army sources said that his body has been recovered and is being taken to an army camp in Colombo.Lankan sources says top LTTE leadership may have committed mass suicide.