The death of LTTE’s political wing head S P Tamilselvan in a Sri Lankan air raid in  Killinochi in the north is a deadly blow to the rebel outfit. Not because Tamilselvan was fourth in the hierarchy and the first top leader to die in action since the outbreak of ethnic conflict three decades ago. It shows that the Sri Lankan Air Force, thanks to accurate air intelligence, has precision-bombed a rebel conclave in a territory under their control, thus successfully cracking the wall of security that helped the group to survive for so long without air cover. If the air force, with the help of reconnaissance aircraft, could find Tamilselvan’s hideout and the exact timing of his meeting with top leaders at a compound used as a communications centre with Tamil sympathisers abroad, it means LTTE chief Prabhakaran is now equally vulnerable.

For the last one year, the Sri Lankan air force has been repeatedly trying in vain to strike at Prabhakaran and other leaders of the LTTE. The killing of Tamilselvan and his associates is its first success. The air strike is a retaliation for the air and ground attack mounted by the LTTE at Anuradhapura which destroyed at least eight planes and helicopters, including a well-equipped spy plane. However, combat aircraft like the Israeli-made Kfir are still intact and they have been used in the latest raids which also targetted a Black Tiger hideout in the same Iranamadu area. 

Tamilselvan (40) shot into limelight after the short-lived February 2002 ceasefire when he interacted with Norwegian and other international facilitators and took part in a few rounds of  talks with the Sri Lankan Government. He was thus projected as the LTTE’s public face and link to the outside world. His death, closely following that of the group’s ideologue Anton Balasingham, is a setback, but not a major one as Prabhakaran calls the shots and the group’s political and military wings are only notional. This is evident from the naming of the group’s so-called police chief in the territory under its control, P Nadesan, as the new head of the political wing. Buoyed by the success, the Sri Lankan armed forces can be expected to step up the offensive. But Prabhakaran, a wounded Tiger, may mount yet another spectacular strike at a time and place of his choosing. Uneasy days are ahead in Sri Lanka.