The core leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was eliminated May 18 as the Sri Lankan military wrested the last bit of territory from Tiger control and declared victory in a 25-year civil war. The Tigers founder and leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was killed along with a handful of his deputies, including his son and Charles Anthony, his designated successor to the Tigers' leadership. The Tigers' leadership was holed up in a half-square mile of jungle in the northeastern Mullivaikal district when they were shot dead as they were trying to flee in an ambulance from encroaching government troops. The elimination of the Tigers' leadership — now confirmed by the Sri Lankan military — will severely cripple the organization that was once recognized as one of the most sophisticated and lethal militant groups in the world. Prabhakaran founded the Tigers almost exactly 33 years ago in May 1976 and disciplined the organization in the art of operational security and the practice of suicide combat. His extensive network of informants guarded the Tigers for decades from infiltration, but a 33-month military offensive that culminated May 17 has now left the organization in tatters. Prabhakaran is believed to have had total control over the Tigers, from planning to intelligence to operations to political affairs. He oversaw a central governing committee that includes a military wing divided into ground, naval, air and suicide commando subdivisions, an intelligence group, and a political office that is subordinate to the military wing. Prabhakaran and his heir, Charles Anthony, along with five other members of the core leadership were killed May 18: Pottu Amman, the Tiger's intelligence chief and chief adviser to Prabhakaran, Soosai, the chief of the Tigers' naval wing, the Sea Tigers; B. Nadesan, the political chief, S. Puleedevan, head of the "peace secretariat" and S. Ramesh, head of the eastern military wing. The Sri Lankan military has been highly successful in taking out other key members of the Tigers' leadership this year. In March 2009, the chief of the Tigers' extensive international financing network was killed by mortar fire alongside 16 other fighters off the island's northeastern coast. Rathnam Master (aka Charles Master), the reported head of the Tigers' air wing, personal bodyguard to Prabhakaran, and the head of the Radan Regiment (a personal security unit) was reportedly killed April 7 in addition to several of the Tigers' elite commanders around the same time. Earlier, in September 2008 it was reported that Lt. Col. Mathiyazhaki, the chief of the Black Tigers (the Tigers' highly trained suicide commando unit) was killed during an operation against the Sri Lankan military's headquarters in Vanni. His apparent successor, Bhanu, is also reported dead and the fate of the current Black Tiger leader, Madawan Master, is unknown. The Tigers' weapons smuggling network is still more or less intact, with the chief arms smuggler Pathmanathan still reportedly at large. Nonetheless, there is little question that the Tigers' command and control structure has suffered a devastating blow at the hands of the Sri Lankan military. The exact cadre strength of the Tigers is unknown, but is now estimated to number around somewhere in the hundreds — a sharp contrast from earlier estimates nearing 18,000 just a few years ago. Though the Tigers have acknowledged their resounding defeat and announced a decision May 17 to "silence its guns," STRATFOR sources have indicated that last-ditch suicide attacks in Colombo against civilian and military targets can be expected in the coming days. An operative from the Tigers on May 15 reportedly jumped out of his apartment window and committed suicide while being pursued by Sri Lankan security forces. In his apartment, four suicide vests were found and sources on the ground report that the operative was bribing an army colonel with around $5,000 a month to gain access to sensitive military targets. While this particular plot has apparently suffered a setback, it can be reasonably assumed that the Tigers have other cells in position in Colombo to carry out suicide attacks. Such attacks will be an indicator of the Tigers' expected transformation from a conventional guerrilla fighting force to a traditional terrorist group. Though the group has been crippled, it has a small number of trained cadres capable of pulling off sporadic militant attacks to keep the Tamil cause alive and pull recruits from Tamil civilian populations that have been caught in the crossfire during this lengthy military offensive.