23 May,2009 11:41 AM IST | | PTI
LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran's body has been cremated by Sri Lankan security forces, army chief Gen Sarath Fonseka has said amid claims by the rebels that their chief is alive.
Fonseka said the identification of 54-year-old Prabhakaran's body came on Tuesday morning after heavy confrontations in the northeastern Mullaittivu district the previous day. "We cremated the body in the same area and threw the ashes into the (Indian) ocean," Fonseka told the Rivira newspaper in an interview to be published tomorrow.
"Even before Prabhakaran was killed, I knew we had won the war, but I was overjoyed when I had confirmation of his death," he said. Fonseka said about 170 Tiger cadres were killed together with Prabhakaran on Monday.
However, the bodies of Tiger intelligence chief Pottu Amman and Prabhakaran's wife, Mathiwadini, had not been identified, although Prabhakaran's eldest son Charles Anthony's body was found.
The government showed footage of Prabhakaran's body after the pro-rebel Tamilnet website first claimed on May 18 that he was alive and well.
