Sri Lanka president says ‘terrorism crushed’: state radio

May 16, 2009 (AFP) - The president of Sri Lanka declared Saturday that the island's separatist Tamil Tiger rebels have been "crushed," state radio reported.







President Mahinda Rajapakse, speaking to a G11 group of developing nations summit in Jordan, said he would return home on Sunday as "a leader of a nation that crushed terrorism," the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation said.

Government forces had surrounded the Tamil Tiger rebels and were "very close" to completely routing the separatists after 37 years of fighting, the defence ministry here said earlier.