'Two LTTE leaders were killed as they marched to surrender'

London LTTE's political wing leaders B Nadesan and S Puleedevan were gunned down by the Sri Lankan army as they came out holding white flags to surrender, according to a media report.

Balasingham Nadesan was the head of the political wing of LTTE, while Seevaratnam Puleedevan was the chief of the Tigers' peace secretariat.

"For several days I had been the intermediary between the Tiger leadership and the United Nations as the Army pressed in on the last enclave at the end of a successful military campaign to defeat the rebellion," a Sunday Times correspondent wrote.

The correspondent quoted a Tamil, who was in a group that managed to escape the war zone, to describe what happened on the morning of May 18 when the two leaders were killed.

This source, who later spoke to an aid worker, said Nadesan and Puleedevan walked towards the Sri Lankan army lines with a white flag in a group of about a dozen men and women. He said the army started firing machine guns at them.

Nadesan's wife, a Sinhalese, yelled in Sinhala at the soldiers: "He is trying to surrender and you are shooting him." She was also shot down.

According to the source, who is now in hiding fearful for his life, all in the group were killed.