A top LTTE leader K V Balakumaran has been critically wounded in the ongoing offensive by the Sri Lankan Army, which is close to wiping out the outfit.
Balakumaran, believed to be one of the around 12 top leaders of the LTTE, was injured in an army attack near Udayarkattu on Monday, pro-LTTE Tamil website Puthinam.Com reported.
He is the second top Tiger commander to fall casualty in the battle and was rushed to an intensive care unit at an undisclosed location.
In November 2007, LTTE's former political head S P Thamilchelvan was killed in an aerial attack on Kilinochchi, the former administrative headquarters of the rebels.
"LTTE's Special Representative K V Balakumaran was injured in an attack by the Sri Lankan army in Udayarkattu area on Monday. He is now treated for his injuries," the website said.
Balakumaran is the former leader of the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS), an outfit blamed for a string of blasts in Colombo in the mid 1980s, including a failed attempt to bomb the hotel room of an Israeli diplomat.
The EROS later merged with the LTTE which is fighting for a separate homeland for Tamils in Sri Lanka.
{{/usCountry}}The EROS later merged with the LTTE which is fighting for a separate homeland for Tamils in Sri Lanka.
{{/usCountry}}Though Sri Lankan security experts say that a dozen leaders form the top echelon of LTTE. But, apart from Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran and their new political head B Nadesan, the names of other leaders and commanders are still kept under wraps.