Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war has ended, the Sri Lankan government reported Monday. According to the government, the military might of the Tamil resistance died along with resistance leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Prabhakaran was the leader of the Tamil Tigers, also known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The militant organization has been fighting for a Tamil state in northeast Sri Lanka and has kept the battle raging, violent or otherwise, since it was founded in 1976. The LTTE was recognized as a terrorist organization by 32 countries during its campaign.

Prabhakaran’s death occurred alongside 250 of his fellow insurgents as they made a last-ditch push against the surrounding Sri Lankan forces. The two-hour battle ended as the military fired a rocket at an armor-plated van that began fleeing with Prabhakaran inside. No photos of Prabhakaran’s body have been released yet, but the military says that they have recovered the body, and at press time, DNA testing was being done.

The LTTE’s severely dwindled force and influence came as the result of a several-month-long fight by Sri Lanka to corner and ultimately defeat the Tigers. Less than a month ago, the government reported that it had pushed the LTTE army into a small district in northeast Sri Lanka and given civilians 72 hours to flee before they began shelling.

While news organizations are touting the death of the Tamil Tigers, supporters remain dedicated to the cause of the Tamil diaspora. Famed Tiger Maya Arulpragasam, also known as M.I.A., posted to her Twitter Sunday that “THE WAR IN SRI LANKA IS NOT AGAINST THE TIGERS, IT’S AGAINST THE TAMIL PEOPLE!”

Even on Sunday, before Prabhakaran was declared dead, LTTE official Selvarasa Pathmanathan released a statement saying: “The battle has reached its bitter end. We have decided to silence our guns.”

The statement, however, did not serve as an official surrender.

Around the same time Pathmanathan made the statement, he posted a comment on a pro-rebel Web site praising the group’s “fearless and unending commitment to this cause.”

The push by the Sri Lankan government to defeat the LTTE during the past few months has killed an estimated 7,000 people and displaced 265,000 refugees, who are now housed in government camps.

Reach columnist Morgan Gard at news@dailyuw.com.