COLOMBO, Nov 2: The LTTE’s political wing chief, S. P. Thamilchelvan, who was the rebel outfit’s public face, was killed on Friday morning when the Sri Lankan Air Force bombed the guerrilla-held northern territory, military officials and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam confirmed.

Along with Thamilchelvan, five other senior LTTE cadres were killed, the rebels said in a statement posted on the pro-rebel website Tamil Net.

“The Sri Lanka Air Force attack has specifically targeted the residence of the members of the Political Division. The Secretary-General at the Headquarters of the LTTE, S. Cheeran, said the LTTE Political Head was killed in the Air Force bombardment that took place at 6:00 am,” the statement by the Tiger separatists said.

Air Force Spokesman Group Captain Ajantha Silva said fighter jets targeted a location in Thiruvaiaru, south of rebel-controlled Kilinochchi, where top rebels hold their meetings.

Anti-LTTE parties in the south of the country hailed the killing of Thamilchelvan and other Tiger leaders as a ‘major victory’ while the pro- LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said the bombing was a blow to any chances of getting Sri Lanka’s tattered peace process back on track.

The Tamil National Alliance in a statement on Friday evening expressed shock at the killing of the top LTTE leader and saluted Thamilchelvan’s “selfless sacrifice for the Tamil Eelam struggle”.

“Although his death is destined to create thousands of new Thamilchelvans who will doubtless serve our freedom struggle with dedication, we shudder at the repercussions for peace of this act by the Sri Lanka government,” the TNA said.

Friday’s bombing came a week after a recent devastating LTTE suicide attack on an air force base in the north-central province of Anuradhapura which killed 13 airmen, 21 rebels and destroyed a fleet of spy planes worth millions of dollars, spurring on a series of retaliatory attacks by the air force.