Colombo, May 18 (IANS) Sri Lanka's 26-year-long insurgency ended with a blaze of bullets as Velupillai Prabhakaran, the dreaded chief of the Tamil Tigers that was responsible for assassinating Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and several leaders of the island nation, was killed Monday while trying to flee the battle zone.

Wild celebrations erupted in large parts of Sri Lanka, including capital Colombo, as the authorities announced that the elusive 54-year-old - who fled his home in 1972 with nothing more than a dream to carve out an independent Tamil homeland - had died, ending one of the world's longest running insurgencies that bled the tiny country of 20 million people dominated by the Sinhalese. 

Soldiers fired at an ambulance in which Prabhakaran was being taken by his loyalists from the war zone in the north. His face apparently caught fire and he breathed his last in a small stretch of land near the coast in Mullaitivu district, an area about 400 km from here, which he had made his hideout a long time ago, building seemingly impregnable underground bunkers. 

The death came hours after his elder son Charles Anthony, who headed the group's IT wing and was being groomed to succeed him, was also killed. It marked the collapse of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which Prabhakaran set up in 1976 and which became one of the most well-armed and ruthless insurgent groups in the world with its own army, navy and air force. 

It also came three days before the 18th anniversary of the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, who was blown up by a woman Tamil Tiger suicide bomber at an election rally near Chennai in India on May 21, 1991. The LTTE also similarly killed Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa and several Sri Lankan ministers, politicians and other leading personalities in its quarter-century reign of terror which it conducted in defence of minority Tamil rights.

A triumphant Sri Lankan army chief, Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka, told state-owned TV: "We have now completed our task of liberating the north and east from terrorists." Fonseka was badly wounded when an LTTE suicide bomber sneaked into the fortified army headquarters in Colombo and tried to blow him up. 

Also killed Monday with Prabhakaran was Shanmugalingam Shivashankar alias Pottu Amman, the dreaded chief of the intelligence wing that was responsible for all the high profile assassinations the Tigers carried out in its long and murderous history. 

Other key LTTE leaders whose bodies were found Monday were Soosai, the LTTE's naval wing leader; Balasingham Nadesan, who headed its political wing; S. Puleedevan, head of the Peace Secretariat; Ramesh, a military leader; Ilango, chief of the LTTE police; and Kapil Amman from the LTTE intelligence wing. 

Puleedevan dealt extensively with the diplomatic community during the Norway-brokered ceasefire agreement between Colombo and the LTTE from 2002 until it collapsed under renewed violence within a few years. 

The deaths sparked frenzied celebrations in Colombo and vast parts of the Sinhalese populated central and southern provinces as people poured out of their homes, waved national flags and distributed sweets. 

Born into a Hindu middle class family of Jaffna in 1954, Prabhakaran was the youngest of two sons and two daughters of a junior government employee in the Sri Lankan government. 

A school dropout, he set up the Tamil New Tigers (TNT) group in 1972, which became the LTTE in 1976. He singlehandedly built it into an awesome military machine that at one point controlled a third of Sri Lanka's land territory and two-thirds of its coastline. 

The discovery of the bodies of Prabhakaran and the others - television footage showed the blown up face of Prabhakaran's son Anthony - marks the macabre end of a group which still commands a lot of support among Tamil expatriates spread all over the West as well as in sections of Tamil Nadu, where Prabhakaran lived 1983-87 and where the LTTE once had training camps and offices. 

Anthony's body was found at Karayamullavaikkal in Mullaitivu district, "after an unsuccessful and half-hearted attempt by LTTE cadres to evacuate their leader's son early this morning", the defence ministry said. 

Tamil sources told IANS that a large number of LTTE fighters may have committed mass suicide in Mullaitivu district by blowing themselves up so as to avoid falling into the hands of the military. 

Prabhakaran's death also came a day after the LTTE made a momentous announcement that it had decided to "silence" its guns as the "battle has reached its bitter end". 

But the Sri Lankan military, determined to have a total victory over the LTTE, continued the last of its mopping up operations. 

More than 250,000 civilians who fled rebel-held areas were being housed in camps in the northern province with promises from the government that they would be resettled in their original villages as soon as possible.

Previous report

Celebrations in Lanka

LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran's death, bringing down the curtains on his 25-year-old armed struggle for a separate Tamil state, sparked off celebrations in the island nation Monday.

People poured out into the streets in many towns, setting off firecrackers, waving the national flag and distributing milk rice to mark the military victory. 

In Colombo, soon after the announcement of the LTTE leader's death, people were seen setting off firecrackers at street junctions, holding up traffic briefly while youth were seen shaking hands with soldiers on duty at sentry points, DPA reported. 

Prabhakaran was killed while trying to escape the battle zone in the island's north along with two of his top aides.

Prabhakaran, 54, was in a convoy of a van and an ambulance with Pottu Amman, head of the intelligence wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and Sea Tigers chief Soosai when the military opened fire in an isolated strip of Mullaitivu district.

Prabhakaran's death comes shortly after soldiers stumbled upon the bodies of several key LTTE leaders, including his son Charles Anthony, who headed the group's IT wing and was being groomed to take over his father's mantle.

Chandima Perera, a bank executive, told Daily News in Pannipitiya area here that it was a very happy day.

"We were living in fear for decades. We went to work or sent our children to school with fear, not knowing whether we could return home safely. Now that the armed forces had defeated the terrorists, the funds spent on the war could be diverted to the economic development and social welfare of the country."

Pumika Sumathipala, a physician in a children's hospital, said: "Though the war against the terrorists was over now the real war begins with the resettlement of such a large number of people who had lost their property and belongings. The resettlement of civilians who had suffered immensely in the past should be given high priority to ensure that terrorism would not raise its ugly head again." 

The government asked the people to hoist the national flag Monday, "as a mark of victory achieved by security forces in defeating terrorism and as a tribute to heroic soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the nation". 

Death blow for LTTE as Prabhakaran, aides killed in Sri Lanka

Colombo, May 18 (IANS) Velupillai Prabhakaran, the feared leader of Sri Lanka's ruthless Tamil Tigers, was killed Monday while trying to flee the battle zone in the island's north with two top aides, ending one of the world's longest running insurgencies that bled the island nation for over a quarter century.

Wild celebrations erupted in large parts of Sri Lanka, including capital Colombo, as authorities announced that the elusive 54-year-old, who fled his home in 1972 with nothing more than a dream to carve out an independent Tamil homeland, had died after pursuing soldiers fired at an ambulance in which he was being taken by his loyalists from the war zone. 

Prabhakaran's face apparently caught fire and he breathed his last in a small stretch of land near the coast in Mullaitivu district, an area about 400 km from here which he had made his hideout a long time ago, building seemingly impregnable underground bunkers. 

The death -- which came hours after his elder son Charles Anthony, who headed the group's IT wing and was being groomed to succeed him, was also killed -- marks the collapse of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which Prabhakaran set up in 1976 and which became one of the most well-armed and ruthless insurgent groups in the world with its own army, navy and air force. 

It also came three days before the 18th anniversary of the assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was blown up by a woman Tamil Tiger suicide bomber at an election rally near Chennai in India on May 21, 1991. 

A triumphant Sri Lankan army chief, Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka, told state-owned TV: "We have now completed our task of liberating the north and east from terrorists." Fonseka was badly wounded when an LTTE suicide bomber sneaked into the fortified army headquarters in Colombo and tried to blow him up. 

Also killed Monday with Prabhakaran was Shanmugalingam Shivashankar alias Pottu Amman, the dreaded chief of the intelligence wing that was responsible for all the high profile assassinations the Tigers carried out in its long and murderous history. 

Other key LTTE leaders whose bodies were found Monday were Soosai, the LTTE's naval wing leader, Balasingham Nadesan, who headed its political wing, S. Puleedevan, head of the Peace Secretariat, Ramesh, a military leader, Ilango, chief of the LTTE police, and Kapil Amman from the LTTE intelligence wing.

Puleedevan dealt extensively with the diplomatic community during the Norway-brokered ceasefire agreement between Colombo and the LTTE from 2002 until it collapsed under renewed violence within a few years.

The deaths sparked frenzied celebrations in Colombo and vast parts of the Sinhalese populated central and southern provinces as people poured out of their homes, waved national flags and distributed sweets.

Born into a Hindu middle class family of Jaffna in 1954, Prabhakaran was the youngest of two sons and two daughters of a junior government employee in the Sri Lankan government. 

A school dropout, he set up the Tamil New Tigers (TNT) group in 1972, which became the LTTE in 1976. He single-handedly built it into an awesome military machine that turned assassinations into a fine art and at one point controlled a third of Sri Lanka's land territory and two-thirds of its coastline.

The discovery of the bodies of Prabhakaran and the others -- television footage showed the blown up face of Prabhakaran's son -- marks the macabre end of a group which still commands a lot of support among Tamil expatriates spread all over the West as well as in sections of Tamil Nadu, where Prabhakaran lived 1983-87 and where the LTTE once had training camps and offices. 

Anthony's body was found at Karayamullavaikkal in Mullaitivu district, "after an unsuccessful and half-hearted attempt by LTTE cadres to evacuate their leader's son early this morning", the defence ministry said.

Some bodies of LTTE fighters were found in the nearby Vellamullivaikkal area.

Tamil sources told IANS that a large number of LTTE fighters may have committed mass suicide in Mullaitivu district by blowing themselves up so as to avoid falling into the hands of the military. 

Prabhakaran's death also came a day after the LTTE made a momentous announcement that it had decided to "silence" its guns as the "battle has reached its bitter end".

But the Sri Lankan military, determined to have a total victory over the LTTE, continued the last of its mopping up operations saying some fighters had been boxed into a 100m x 100m area, north of Vellamullivaikkal.

More than 250,000 civilians who fled rebel-held areas were being housed in camps in the northern province with promises from the government that they would be resettled in their original villages as soon as possible. 

Details sought from Sri Lanka on Prabhakaran: Congress

New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) The Indian government has sought details from Sri Lanka about the military action in which LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed, the ruling Congress party said Monday.

"It is a very sensitive issue. The Indian government is talking to the Sri Lankan government," Congress spokesperson Janardhan Dwivedi told reporters here when asked about reports on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief Prabhakaran's fate. 

"First we will take facts from Sri Lanka after which the Indian government will issue a reaction," he said. 

"(External Affairs Minister) Pranab Mukherjee would meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on this issue," said Dwivedi.

The Sri Lanka military earlier announced Prabhakaran was killed Monday while trying to escape the battlezone in the island's north along with two of his top aides.

Time to address root causes of Sri Lankan conflict: India

New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) Now that the "conventional conflict" in Sri Lanka has ended with the killing of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, India Monday said it was time to address root causes of the strife and called for "political steps towards the effective devolution of power" to all communities.

"In a telephone conversation with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee earlier today, the president of Sri Lanka confirmed that armed resistance by the LTTE has come to an end and that LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead," external affairs ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said here. 

"India will work with the people and government of Sri Lanka to provide relief to those affected by the tragic conflict, and to rapidly rehabilitate all those who have been displaced, bringing their lives to normalcy as soon as possible," the spokesperson said.

"It is our view that as the conventional conflict in Sri Lanka comes to an end, this is the moment when the root causes of conflict in Sri Lanka can be addressed.

"This would include political steps towards the effective devolution of power within the Sri Lankan constitution so that Sri Lankans of all communities, including the Tamils, can feel at home and lead lives of dignity of their own free will," the spokesperson added. 

India to send more medical aid to Sri Lanka

New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) With thousands of Tamil civilians in war-torn Sri Lanka needing immediate medical care, India will soon be sending more medical aid to the island nation, an official said Monday.

An Indian Air Force transport aircraft will leave for Sri Lanka Friday carrying medical aid. 

"An IL-76 aircraft carrying about 25 tonnes of medicines will leave for Colombo on May 22. This will be disbursed to the sick and wounded internally displaced people in northern Sri Lanka," an Indian Air Force official said. 

The Indian Army has already set up a fully equipped 50-bed hospital close to a camp for the displaced at Pulmodai, a town on Sri Lanka's north-east coast. The army's 60-member medical team comprising specialists, surgeons and paediatricians have treated over 3,000 people, mainly war wounded, trauma and fracture cases in the past two months since the hospital came up.

"Acting on a request from the Sri Lankan government, the Field Hospital will soon be shifted to Manik Farms in Vavuniya to widen the scope of the humanitarian assistance," the official added. 

A need was felt for including a gynaecologist in the team of doctors but experts said that since the Field Hospital lacks specialized medical equipment and support staff, this would not be feasible at the moment. A lady Medical Officer in the team was capable of handling routine problems related to women patients. 

The Sri Lankan war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has resulted in the displacement of millions of people creating a humanitarian crisis of huge proportions. 

Prabhakaran's death evokes mixed feelings, security tightened in Chennai

Chennai, May 18 (IANS) Relief and frank disbelief - as news came in that Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran had actually been killed, some in this Tamil Nadu capital said it was long in coming and others simply refused to believe it was true.

Unwilling to take chances, the establishment tightened security all over the state and especially in Chennai, where the issue of Tamil Eelam, or a separate state for Tamils in Sri Lanka, has always been an emotive one. 

Security was particularly stepped up around the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in the heart of the city, making it difficult for people who lived and worked in the area. 

"No chances are being taken as this could prove to be an emotional issue amongst a small section of society. Armed pickets have been posted at all vulnerable areas," a police official told IANS.

And while police went on alert, the reactions to the death of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief in Sri Lanka's Mullaitivu area varied widely. 

"If the news is true, the last hope of Tamils in Sri Lanka who once ruled that island nation, long before the Sinhalese, is lost forever. Whatever may have been his shortcomings, he will always be hero to us," said K.N.P. Dasarathan, a business executive. 

Added a Sri Lankan Tamil student: "Knowing Thambi (brother), the news is probably untrue as there are little chances of his being killed by the enemy. However, if the story is true... he has become a martyr." 

But for businessman N. Suresh, it was a matter of human life and the toll that the LTTE had extracted. 

"If one looks at human life, the deaths in Sri Lanka sadden me whether it is Prabhakaran or anybody else. Prabhakaran extended the elastic bit too long and lost. He should have entered into a dialogue with the Sri Lankan government early. 

"It should also be remembered that the LTTE killed other groups and leaders fighting for the Tamil rights cause."

Added homemaker R. Vasantha: "Terrorism has no space in a civil society. Whether it is Prabhakaran or Veerappan, both have to be eliminated."

Political analyst Cho Ramaswamy welcomed the development. "Sri Lanka is now rid of a problem and it is a great relief...

"The LTTE has eliminated many Tamil leaders though there are some remaining alive. In Tamil Nadu, some fringe groups may indulge in violence and there may some self immolations. The state police can easily quell that as there is no support for them from the people," he said. 

The pro-LTTE political parties were unavailable for comment. 

Both Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa had endorsed a separate homeland for Sri Lankan Tamils during the last days of the election campaign.

The decades long conflict for a separate Tamil homeland left nearly 90,000 people dead in the island nation, separated from India by a narrow stretch of sea. 

Previous news

LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead

Velupillai Prabhakaran, the elusive leader of Sri Lanka's feared Tamil Tigers, was killed Monday while trying to escape the battlezone in the island's north along with two of his top aides, the military announced.

Prabhakaran, 54, was in a convoy of a van and an ambulance with Pottu Amman, head of the intelligence wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and Sea Tigers chief Soosai when the military opened fire in an isolated strip of Mullaitivu district.

The deaths sparked frenzied celebrations in the capital Colombo and large parts of the Sinhalese populated central and southern provinces as people poured out of their homes, waved national flags and distributed sweets.

Prabhakaran's death comes shortly after soldiers stumbled upon the bodies of several key LTTE leaders, including his son Charles Anthony, who headed the group's IT wing and was being groomed to take over his father's mantle.

Prabhakaran founded the LTTE in 1976 and built it into an awesome military machine that at one point controlled a third of Sri Lanka's land territory and two-thirds of its coastline.

LTTE defeated, Sri Lanka free from terror

Sri Lankan armed forces have "militarily defeated the LTTE and freed the nation from three decades of terror", army chief Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka said Monday after Tamil Tigers leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed in the island's north.

All top leaders had now been killed and the process of identifying the bodies was underway, the Sri Lankan military announced.

Prabhakaran was killed while trying to escape the battlezone in the island's north along with two of his top aides.

Prabhakaran, 54, was in a convoy of a van and an ambulance with Pottu Amman, head of the intelligence wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and Sea Tigers chief Soosai when the military opened fire in an isolated strip of Mullaitivu district.

Prabhakaran's death comes shortly after soldiers stumbled upon the bodies of several key LTTE leaders, including his son Charles Anthony, who headed the group's IT wing and was being groomed to take over his father's mantle.

Prabhakaran: From catapult killer to ruthless insurgent

His first victims were squirrels and birds, and his first weapon a humble catapult. From such beginnings, Velupillai Prabhakaran -- who died ignonominiously Monday -- grew to be the world's most shadowy and ruthless insurgent who at one time lorded over vast areas in Sri Lanka's northeast.

The over 35 years Prabhakaran spent underground building the once unknown Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) into an awesome war and terror machine transformed the Indian Ocean island from an idyllic tourist haven into a bleeding state.

His unforgiving campaign for an independent Tamil Eelam state, to be carved out of the Tamil-majority northeastern province, left nearly 90,000 dead, gave birth to a cult of suicide bombings that shook the world, and cast a long shadow on nearby India.

By the time destiny caught up with Prabhakaran on May 18, 2009, he had acquired legendary notoriety. To critics he was a megalomaniac, one who had turned assassinations into a fine art. To his admirers he was a doughty fighter, unlike Tamil leaders of an earlier era.

Driven by a worldview that Tamils could not live within Sri Lanka because the Sinhalese would never treat them as equals, Prabhakaran decreed that anyone deemed an impediment in his path needed to be done away with.

And he did that with a vengeance that was numbingly brutal, producing dread and even awe.

He had leaders of two countries killed. One was former Indian premier Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated when a woman strapped with explosives blew up in May 1991 while pretending to touch his feet. The other was Sri Lanka's president Ranasinghe Premadasa, torn apart at a 1993 May Day rally by a young male who had infiltrated his house a long time ago.

But none of the attributes of blood and gore that made him so ruthless was evident when he took birth in a simple middle class home in Jaffna, the Tamil heartland, on Nov 26, 1954.

That was when ethnic unrest was starting to engulf Sri Lanka, involving the largely Buddhist Sinhalese majority and the mainly Hindu Tamil minority.

Born to a disciplinarian father, who a Sri Lankan government employee, and a devout mother, Prabhakaran was the youngest of two daughters and two sons, the natural darling of the family.

His early idols were two Indian independence heroes, including Subhas Chandra Bose, who chose gun over Mahatma Gandhi's non-violence. Prabhakaran dropped out of school due to the pull of a nascent Tamil militancy. He fled his home for good in 1972 after a vicious police crackdown.

Prabhakaran's first major act of violence was the gunning down of Jaffna's Tamil mayor in 1975. The LTTE took birth the next year but remained largely unknown till it issued its first press statement in 1978.

Those were dark days for the young Prabhakaran. With the police looking for him and lacking enough hideouts, he would sail stealthily to India's Tamil Nadu state. Money was a problem there too. There were nights when he went hungry.

In a dramatic event, the import of which was then lost, the unknown Prabhakaran was arrested - for the first and last time - in Madras (now Chennai) in May 1982 after trying to kill a rival. But with help from Indian politicians, he got bail and escaped to Sri Lanka to resume his bloody innings.

It was Prabhakaran's ambush of an army patrol in Jaffna in July 1983 that killed 13 soldiers and sparked off terrible anti-Tamil violence, leading to a full-blown insurgency.

Once New Delhi began clandestinely training and arming Tamil militant groups, including the LTTE, Prabhakaran shifted to Tamil Nadu and lived there for over three years while the LTTE grew and grew.

From the safety of India, Prabhakaran ordered murderous attacks in Sri Lanka. Even as he fell in love with a Jaffna University student and fathered three children, he set up a clandestine network to feed the LTTE weapons and ammunition from around the world.

Prabhakaran quit India in January 1987. When India and Sri Lanka signed a pact later that year to end Tamil separatism, he appeared to go with it but then audaciously took on the Indian Army deployed in Sri Lanka's northeast.

Prabhakaran killed at will - be they Muslims, perceived foes among Tamils, Sri Lankan leaders or Sinhalese civilians. His suicide bombers were an elite force, whose members had their last supper with him before setting out on their missions.

Even in his bunkers, Prabhakaran was a doting father, cutting cakes on his children's birthdays. He loved good food, ice cream in particular. He had a fetish for cleanliness, was paranoid about his security, and exercised regularly. He was soft spoken. He expected complete loyalty from his band of men and women. Dissenters got no mercy.

As the body count mounted in Sri Lanka, he became uncompromising vis-�-vis his goal of Tamil Eelam. He ruled Jaffna for five years until 1995. By the late 1990s, the LTTE had large parts of the island's north and east under his control.

The LTTE had by then grown into a mammoth, fearsome entity, with the trappings of a de facto state. LTTE offices spawned in numerous countries. Unable to meet its military challenge, Sri Lanka requested Norway to broker peace, leading to a truce in 2002.

But lack of mutual trust and a crippling split in the LTTE in 2004 shattered the peace. In late 2005, Prabhakaran asked Tamils to boycott the presidential polls, leading to the narrow victory of Mahinda Rajapaksa. He believed that a Sinhalese hardliner in office would help rally the Tamils.

It turned out to be his biggest blunder - after Gandhi's 1991 killing.

LTTE provocations led to war in 2006. By 2007, Colombo brought the entire eastern province under its control for the first time in several years. By 2008, better equipped and trained Sri Lankan troops began capturing territory in the north and began killing Prabhakaran's close lieutenants.

Kilinochchi, which was Prabhakaran's de facto capital, fell in January 2009. Just four months later, the man himself lay dead while trying to flee from pursuing soldiers, dropping the curtains on one of the world's longest and bloodiest insurgencies.

(M.R. Narayan Swamy is the author of "Inside An Elusive Mind", the only biography of Prabhakaran.).

Velupillai Prabhakaran: His life, times and death

New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) From Nov 26, 1954 to May 18, 2009 - the following is a chronological account of the life and times of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tamil Tigers chief who was killed Monday in the north of Sri Lanka:

1954 (Nov 26): Born in Jaffna in a Hindu middle class family, the youngest of two sons and two daughters. 

1960-70s: Takes to militancy, indulges in minor acts of violence. 

1972: Forms Tamil New Tigers (TNT), flees home for good. 

1975: Assassinates Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duriappah at Hindu temple. 

1976: TNT becomes Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). 

1978: LTTE issues first press statement. 

1982: Arrested in Madras (now Chennai) after a shootout with a rival Tamil militant. Jailed, bailed, escapes to Sri Lanka. 

1983: Ambushes army patrol in Jaffna, killing 13 soldiers. Anti-Tamil riots sweep Colombo, leaving hundreds dead and igniting Tamil insurgency. 

1983 (September): Moves to Tamil Nadu, sets up home in Chennai. LTTE training camps come up in Tamil Nadu. 

1984: Meets Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran and seeks support. Marries Jaffna university student. They go on to have two sons and daughter. 

1985 (May): Orders massacre of Buddhists in the holy town of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. 

1986 (April-May): Orders slaughter of Tamil militants from rival group TELO. 

1987 (January): Quits India for good, saying there is an attempt to kill him. 

1987 (July): Meets Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in New Delhi and says he accepts India-Sri Lanka accord meant to end Tamil separatism. 

1987 (August): Gives speech in Jaffna, saying "We love India", but tells aides he will teach India a lesson for betraying Tamil Eelam cause. 

1987 (October): Launches war against Indian troops deployed in Sri Lanka's northeast. 

1989 (April-June): Goes into peace talks with Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa, who asks Indian troops to go home. 

1989 (July): LTTE kills well known Tamil politicians A. Amirthalingam and V. Yogeswaran in Colombo. 

1990 (April): Takes control of Jaffna, addresses the media. 

1990 (June): Resumes war against Sri Lanka for Tamil Eelam, orders 100,000 Muslims living in Jaffna to quit. Rival militant K. Pathmanabha and aides killed in Chennai, India.

1991 (March): Sri Lankan Defence Minister Ranjan Wijeratne killed by car bomb. 

1991 (May): LTTE woman suicide bomber assassinates former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi at election rally near Chennai. 

1992 (August): Sri Lanka's northern army command wiped out. 

1992 (November): LTTE suicide bomber riding motorcycle kills Sri Lanka Navy chief Clancey Fernando. 

1993: Sri Lankan President Premadasa killed at May Day rally. 

1993 (August): Arrests LTTE number two Mahattaya on charges of being Indian spy, executes him in December 1994. 

1994: Agrees to talk to President Chandria Kumaratunga. Fighting halts. 

1995: Sri Lankan presidential candidate Gamini Dissanayake assassinated. Resumes war against for Tamil Eelam. 

1995 (December): Loses Jaffna to Sri Lankan troops. 

1996 (July): LTTE slaughters 1,200 soldiers and policemen in military complex in just 72 hours. 

1997-99: Takes control of large parts of north and east in Sri Lanka. 

1999 (December): President Kumaratunga escapes assassination attempt, is blinded in one eye.

2000-01: Sri Lanka approaches Norway to facilitate peace talks with LTTE. 

2001 (July): LTTE suicide cadres overrun Sri Lanka's only international airport, destroys 13 aircraft. 

2002 (February): Signs Norway-brokered ceasefire agreement with Sri Lanka. 

2002 (April): Addresses Sri Lankan, international media in Kilinochchi, says he will never give up Tamil Eelam cause. 

2003 (April): Walks out of Norway-backed peace process. 

2004 (March): Faces revolt by LTTE eastern regional commander Karuna and hundreds of cadres in eastern province. 

2005 (August): Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar shot dead by LTTE sniper. 

2006 (April): Army General Sarath Fonseka badly hurt in attack by woman suicide bomber. 

2006 (December): Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa, brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, survives assassination attempt 

2007: Launches air strike near Colombo. LTTE loses eastern province to Sri Lanka. Prabhakaran vows to fight back. 

2008 (January): Sri Lanka spikes ceasefire agreement. LTTE begins to lose territory in north. 

2008 (November): Mocks President Rajapaksa, says LTTE territory can never be seized. 

2009 (January): Loses Kilinochchi, hub of de facto Tamil Eelam state; retreats into Mullaitivu district.

2009 (May 17): Decides to "silence" guns and end armed struggle. 

2009 (May 18): Prabhakaran killed while trying to escape from war zone in Mullaitivu district. Heir apparent son and all key aides also killed.

IANS