Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- An ambush in Sri Lanka has killed a Tamil Tiger political leader, the highest-ranking member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to die in violence since the rebels and the government signed a truce three years ago, the group said.

Three Tamil Tigers members were killed in the incident late yesterday along with the rebel leader, E. Kousalyan, head of the Tigers' political division in the Batticaloa-Amparai district of the South Asian island, the group said on its TamilNet Web site.

The Tigers have been fighting for a separate homeland in the northeast of the country for two decades. Peace talks broke down in 2003. The group split in March when Colonel Karuna, the rebel chief in the eastern region, broke away from the main faction in the north led by Velupillai Prabhakaran.

``It is a military-supported group, the Karuna faction,'' Daya Master, the Tamil Tiger spokesman, said today in a phone interview from Kilinochchi in rebel-held territory. ``They have been attacking us even after the tsunami.''

The Sri Lankan army said a breakaway rebel faction may have been responsible. The Sri Lankan government condemned the killing, calling it a violation of the truce.

``While these killings are a violation of the cease-fire agreement, their timing is also clearly calculated to disrupt the positive post-tsunami atmosphere of increasing cooperation between the government and the LTTE,'' the government said in a faxed statement.

Ambush

Kousalyan was killed when his vehicle carrying nine people was attacked at about 7:45 p.m. local time on the road to Batticaloa in government-controlled territory, the army said in a statement. The ambush took place between two army posts.

Ariyanayagam Chandra Nehru, a former Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian who was among four people injured in the attack, died today in a government hospital in Colombo, the island capital, army spokesman Daya Ratnayake said.

The authorities suspect members of Karuna's faction were behind the attack, Ratnayake said today in a telephone interview.

``We suspect the Karuna faction, which has been actively carrying out organized attacks on the main faction,'' he said. ``This has happened due to the negligence of the LTTE and we have warned them about their security and we have no involvement in this killing as they say.''

Kousalyan was returning from a meeting in the town of Vanni on expanding the aid program for victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami that devastated two-thirds of Sri Lanka's eastern and southern coastline, the rebels said.

``I don't understand why such a senior leader was traveling this way,'' said Ratnayake, ``We have always provided them helicopters when they request it.''

Tsunami Aid

The relief operation has provoked a dispute between the Tamil Tigers and the government. The Tigers have accused the government of limiting the flow of relief aid to the northeast, an allegation denied by President Chandrika Kumaratunga's administration.

More than 30,000 people were killed and half a million left homeless by the tsunami that hit the country of 19.7 million people. At least 17,000 people were killed in the rebel-held northeast, where most of the minority Tamils live.

Sri Lanka needs $1.5 billion to recover from the tsunami, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank said last week.

The Tamil Tigers and the government have been observing a cease-fire since February 2002. The third anniversary falls on Feb. 22. The rebels say a resumption of peace talks must include their demand for the creation of a self-governing interim administration in the Tamil region.

Tamils, who make up fewer than a fifth of the island's population, say they are discriminated against by the majority Sinhalese, who are mostly Buddhist. Sri Lanka's civil war has killed more than 60,000 people.

To contact the reporters on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net; Renee Lawrence in Colombo, Sri Lanka, at rlawrence7@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 8, 2005 05:53 EST