Sri Lankan Army Commander Sarath Fonseka said here Friday that his troops would have been happier if they were able to capture the Tamil Tiger leader alive, Xinhua repored.
"We would have been delighted if we were able to catch him alive," Fonseka told the Swarnavahini television.
The commander said Velupillai Prabhakaran had died in the final battle with the troops.
"The final battle happened on a marshy patch of land. They were hiding among mangroves. My troops had to fire in their self defense," said Fonseka, who is widely credited for ending the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The government on May 19 announced the death of Prabhakaran having found his body on a marshy patch of land near the Nanthikandal lagoon in the northeastern Mullaittivu district.
"If he was captured alive we would have let him go through the legal process. He already had a death sentence passed on him," Fonseka said.
"More importantly we would have had the chance to remind him of many of his brutal acts of terrorism," said Fonseka, adding that the rebel leader had killed many little children and carried many bus explosions.
After raising doubts about the government's claim of Prabhakaran's death, the rebels admitted last Sunday that Prabhakaran died on May 17.
His death signaled the end to the LTTE's bloody armed battle to carve out a separate homeland for the minority Tamils, resulting in the killing of more than 100,000 people.
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