LTTE chief yet to be traced; Tigers concede defeat

Colombo, May 17: Sri Lankan troops today swept across a tiny patch of land still held by the LTTE after killing at least 70 rebels, including two of their leaders, but the elusive Tiger chief V Prabhakaran remained untraceable despite the guerrillas conceding that the war had come to a "bitter end".

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who cut short his visit to Jordan, declared that the guerrillas had been defeated militarily as authorities announced that the last among the remaining 50,000 civilians had fled the conflict zone.

The government also denied reports of the death of the LTTE supremo Prabhakaran and said Rajapaksa would make a nationally-televised address from Parliament on Tuesday to give an update on the war.

"We do not have any reports of Prabhakaran's death and such reports are not true. Even the stories on the (recovery of) burnt LTTE bodies is incorrect," Minister for Mass Media and Information, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, told PTI.

In the face of a major offensive by the Sri lankan military, the Tigers admitted defeat saying they had decided to "silence" their guns. They claimed they had done this to ensure the safety of Tamil civilians. PTI