Sri Lanka struck a major blow against the Tamil Tigers on Friday, killing the rebels’ political chief and top peace negotiator in a surgical government air strike.

S P Thamilselvan, 40, the public face of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, died with five others in an attack by the Sri Lankan air force on rebel-held territory, the Tigers reported.

He was the highest-ranking member of the LTTE to be killed by government forces in the 35-year separatist campaign.

The defence ministry said it had targeted a venue where rebel leaders were meeting and scored a direct hit, taking out the highest-ranking guerrilla to be killed in three and a half decades of fighting. The LTTE immediately declared three days of mourning and named Thamilselvan a brigadier, the highest rank conferred posthumously to any guerrilla by elusive supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran since the group’s formation in 1972.

Thamilselvan, who led a peace-negotiating team at talks with the Sri Lankan government that were hosted by Switzerland last year, had emerged as a de facto number two in the LTTE.

The Sri Lankan air force had several times ferried him from rebel-held territory to the international airport to attend peace talks between September 2002 and October last year.

A further and last round of talks led by Thamilselvan in October 2006 ended in failure and led to more bloodshed in the fight for a Tamil homeland that has left tens of thousands dead since 1972.

Military officials said on Friday they had received a report of a top-level gathering near the northern town of Kilinochchi, the political capital of the LTTE where Thamilselvan was based, and ordered the air raids.

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