COLOMBO, April 1 Charles Anthony, the 24-year-old elder son of Tamil Tigerleader Velupillai Prabhakaran, was injured in a ground battle in thePuthukudiyiruppu area of northeast Sri Lanka about a week ago,military spokesman, Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara told newspersons here onWednesday.

He said that Charles alias Dhanasekaran wastrained in the manufacture and use of explosives and also aeronauticalengineering. He was instrumental in producing the powerful Raghavan I, II, andIII bombs and the Samadanam artillery shells used by the Liberation Tigers ofTamil Eelam (LTTE).

The bombs were fitted into the LTTEaircraft which have raided Colomboand other targets in government administered areas eight times thus far.

As an aeronautical engineer and air warfareexpert, Charles masterminded the LTTE's first aerial attack targetting SriLankan Air Force's principal base at Katunayake, 35 km north of Colombo on March 26,2007. Subsequently, he masterminded the attack on the oil storage facility atKolonnawa and the Muthurajawela gas storage station in the outskirts of thecapital on April 29 the same year. However, his plan to bomb Palaly, the SLAF's only base in the Jaffna peninsula, onApril 24, failed.

Charles Anthony was born in Tamil Nadu onApril 18, 1985. Prabhakaran named him out of respect and affection for an LTTEcadre of the same name who had died in action in Meesalai in 1983.