NEW DELHI — The Tamil Tigers admitted defeat Sunday in their quarter-century struggle against Sri Lanka's government and offered to lay down their weapons to protect the fighters and civilians who remain trapped in a sliver of land along the island's north coast.
Military officials rejected the offer as a last-minute act of desperation. They said that fighting continued, and that the army was bracing for suicide bombings. They also claimed that all civilians were out of the combat zone.
The battered remnants of the rebel force, which has been fighting for a homeland for Sri Lanka's marginalized ethnic Tamil minority, are reportedly trapped in about half a square mile of land.
Early today the army announced that it had found the bodies of four top Tiger leaders, including the eldest son of reclusive leader Velupillai Prabhakaran -- but not of Prabhakaran himself. Those reports could not be confirmed, and Prabhakaran's whereabouts remained a mystery.
The conflict has claimed 70,000 lives, destroyed communities and turned many parts of the idyllic tropical island into a fortress.
On TamilNet, a pro-Tiger website, the decimated rebel group -- known formally as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam -- said it was putting down its weapons.
"This battle has reached its bitter end," rebel official Selvarasa Pathmanathan was quoted as saying in the online statement. "It is our people who are dying now from bombs, shells, illness and hunger. . . . We have decided to silence our guns."
But military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said in a telephone interview that TamilNet had a history of lying and that Sunday was no different. On the ground, Tiger rebels continue to attack soldiers in the conflict zone, he said.
"We have to protect ourselves until the rest of the area is liberated," he said. "If they fire, we will fire back."
The four leaders reportedly found dead today were political leader Balasingham Nadesan; the head of the rebels' peace secretariat, Seevaratnam Puleedevan; a top military leader known as Ramesh; and Prabhakaran's son, Charles Anthony.
Nanayakkara said that with little territory left to capture, the army was confident it would be able to seize the remaining fighters shortly. Whether they surrender, commit suicide or die fighting is their choice, he said.
The military said Sunday that it had killed at least 70 militants trying to escape by boat while suicide bombers sought to attack army positions.
