Sri Lanka’s quarter-century-long civil war is in its final throes, with the militant Tamil separatist group the Tamil Tigers, or the LTTE, almost completely defeated. The Sri Lankan military said today that the fifty-four-year-old leader of the LTTE, Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead. Army Commander Sarath Fonseka announced that the army had “liberated the entire country by liberating the north from terrorists.” On Sunday, the LTTE said it was “prepared to silence its guns” and admitted that the fighting had reached a “bitter end.” [includes rush transcript]