WORLD : Sri Lankan Rebel Leader Slain
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Army commandos today shot and killed the founder and leader of a bloody insurrection by leftist Sinhalese rebels after he and an unknown number of comrades were captured, government officials said.
The death of Rohanna Wijeweera, 46, the founder of the Janatha Vimukti Peramuna, known as the JVP or People’s Liberation Front, is almost certain to provoke an escalation in the blood-letting that has already claimed more than 10,000 lives since 1987, undermined the economy and torn Sri Lankan society.
High-ranking government sources said Wijeweera, a fugitive since 1983, and an unknown number of followers were killed in a pre-dawn raid by elite army troops on a tea estate near the central town of Gampola, 80 miles northeast of Colombo.
But an army commander said the rebel leader was killed by troops in a Colombo hide-out after one of his colleagues opened fire.
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