Tamil Tiger rebels' political leader S. P. Tamilselvan was killed in an air attack carried out by the Sri Lankan Air Force Friday morning.

Positioned No. 2 in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leadership, forty-year-old Tamilselvan was the most senior rebel leader to have been killed in more than two decades.

Tamilselvan was born in Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula and joined the LTTE in early 1980s.

He was appointed the political head on Feb. 16, 1993 and participated almost all peace talks with the government since then.

He escaped death twice with injuries during two operations launched by the troops in 1993 and 2001, turning partly disable due to those injuries.

At one point, Tamilselvan was the personal bodyguard of the LTTE supremo Vellupillai Prabhakaran.

With LTTE leader Prabhakaran rarely seen publicly in recent years, Tamilselvan had become the rebels' link to the outside world.

Tamilselvan is survived by his wife, an eight-year-old daughter and a son of four.

(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2007)