Tamil Tigers’ leader dies as long war finally ends

The 25-year campaign of terror waged by the Tamil Tigers is over. But there are conflicting reports from the north of Sri Lanka this morning about the rebels' last stand against government troops. The Sri Lankan army claims the Tigers' leader and founder Vellupillai Prabhakaran was shot dead while trying to get away in an ambulance. Other reports say he and his top lieutenants blew themselves up rather than be captured.

The latter rumour follows a claim by the military to have intercepted a radio communication that revealed a mass suicide plan.

Reporters are not yet allowed into the final war zone, a small patch of jungle where the Sri Lankan army is said to be "brushing up". There are reports that three other key Tigers are dead - Prabhakaran's son Charles Anthony, political leader Balasingham Nadesan and head of the rebels' 'peace secretariat' Seevaratnam Puleedevan - but whether they were shot trying to escape or killed themselves is unclear.

What is certain is that the Tigers' long war is finally over. The pro-rebel website TamilNet is carrying a statement from Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the Tigers' chief of international relations, which states: "This battle has reached its bitter end."

More than 70,000 people have died since the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were founded by Prabhakaran in May 1976. The Tigers' aim was to fight for the Tamil minority who had been discriminated against by successive Sinhalese majority governments since the country - then called Ceylon - was granted independence by the British in 1948.

As the Tigers' campaign became increasingly violent, so the rebels' notoriety grew. They recruited child soldiers and used female suicide bombers to carry out assassinations - most notably that of the Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. They were proscribed as a terrorist organisation in 32 countries.

Sri Lanka's president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, is expected to formally announce the end of the war on television tomorrow. Thousands of Sri Lankans have been pouring on to the streets to celebrate the news, dancing and setting off fireworks. But there has also been a pro-Tamil demonstration outside the British High Commission in Colombo. One group burned an effigy of David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary. ·