Prabhakaran's family has left Sri Lanka: Report

LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran's wife and two children have left Sri Lanka as the government troops zero in on the last pockets of the Tiger rebels, a report said on Sunday.

"Intelligence agencies say that Prabhakaran is still in this area, but that his wife Madhivadani, daughter Dwarakarnam and youngest son Balachnadran have fled the country," the Lakbima News reported.

According to information obtained by a Tiger suicide cadre arrested around a month ago, Prabhakaran's eldest son Charles Anthony is also in Puthukkudiyiruppu.

Pictures released on Saturday of Prabhakaran, flanked by the two pilots who flew the LTTE aircraft on a suicide mission to Colombo on Friday, have put to rest the speculation that the rebel leader has been killed in the Army offensive.

The Tigers will attempt to delay the army's capture of their remaining pockets for as long as possible to allow the Tiger leader to escape, the newspaper quoted a senior military official as saying.

"However, the army headquarters has decided to accelerate the pace of the military forward march," it said.

One of the arrested suicide cadres recently told the state owned Sunday Observer that Prabhakaran was still in the embattled Wanni in the North.