COLOMBO, May 24 After nearly a week of denial, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has confirmed that its leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, has been killed by the Sri Lankan military.

“We announce today, with inexpressible sadness and heavy hearts that our incomparable leader and supreme commander .... attained martyrdom fighting the military oppression,” Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the LTTE's head of international relations, said in a statement on Sunday.

The Tigers said Prabhakaran had been killed last Tuesday during the last bout of fighting between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan military and declared a week of mourning.

The military had announced that Prabhakaran, 54, had been shot on Monday while travelling in a small van in a bid to escape the final battle between the two sides.