Tuesday, February 8 2005 12:26 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Colombo: At least five Tamil Tiger rebels, including senior political cadre, were killed in eastern Sri Lanka last evening (Feb 07, 2005) in what appeared to be an ambush by the breakaway Karuna faction, military sources said.

E Kausalyan, the leader of the LTTE's political wing for the eastern region, was among those killed.

The members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were traveling in a van that was taking a former Tamil politician to the eastern district of Batticaloa when they were ambushed at the village of Poonani, the sources said.

The Tamil politician, Chandra Nehru, escaped with serious injuries together with two policemen guarding him and their driver.

However, fiver Tigers traveling with them were killed.

Military officials said that they suspected the attack was carried out by the breakaway faction of V Muralitharan, better known as Karuna.

"A gun battle had lasted about 10 minutes," a military source said. "The attack was in the Poonani area. It looks like the attackers had followed the vehicle and then opened fire at Poonani."

There was no immediate reaction from the LTTE to the latest attack against their political wing cadres.

Three days ago, another LTTE political wing leader was shot dead and another wounded.

The Tigers, reportedly blamed the Sri Lankan military for the killings.