Colombo: Conceding defeat in the face a major offensive by Sri Lankan troops, the LTTE on Sunday said the battle has reached its "bitter end" and they have decided to "silence" their guns.
"We remain with one last choice -- to remove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people. We have decided to silence our guns," the pro-rebel Tamilnet website said quoting a statement by the rebels' chief of international relations, Selvarasa Pathmanathan.
The rebels' statement follows President Mahinda Rajapaksa's declaration that the LTTE has been defeated militarily.
"This battle has reached its bitter end," Pathmanathan said, adding that "our only regrets are for the lives lost and that we could not hold out for longer."
Sri Lankan government on Sunday said that all civilians have been rescued from the ever-shrinking No Fire Zone, where the remnant LTTE fighters are holed up. The whereabouts of the LTTE chief V Prabhakaran are not known.
Pathmanathan said the rebels "willingly stand up with courage and silence our guns."
"We have no other option other than to continue our plea to the international community to save our people," he was quoted as saying by Tamilnet.
Earlier, as President Mahinda Rajapaksa returned to Colombo from Jordon after declaring that the LTTE had been defeated militarily, jubilant crowds thronged the streets and held processions in the capital and elsewhere on Sunday.
"Troops have rescued all civilians held as hostage by the LTTE and taken them to safer areas... Sri Lankan soldiers have boxed remaining LTTE cadres into a 400m x 600m land stretch in Wellaimullaivaikkal area," the defence ministry said in a statement.
Military spokesperson Udaya Nanayakkara said that over 50,000 civilians have escaped the area in last 72 hours, even as 70 rebels trying to flee through water route were killed early on Sunday.
Soldiers have reached the concluding phase of their operation as over 36,000 civilians fled the No-Fire Zone in the last 24 hours, the ministry said, adding three divisions of the Army have entered the area where LTTE leaders were "cowering" among civilians during the last couple of weeks.
"Soldiers are now looking for disabled people that may be left in the area as almost all others held hostage by the terrorists were rescued," the ministry said.