At least five people including a top leader of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the eastern region were killed in Sri Lanka Monday, defense officials said.

They were killed in Sri Lanka's eastern and northern province border, the officials said.

Among the five members of the Tamil Tigers killed is Koushalyan, the political leader of the Tigers for the Eastern Province's Batticaloa and Ampara districts.

Chandran Nehru, a former parliamentarian belonging to the Tamil Tiger proxy party the Tamil National Alliance is critically injured, the rebel sources said. Two policemen are also injured.

The government military sources said the victims were gunned down at Welikanda, 285 kilometers from here by suspected members of the rival Karuna faction of the LTTE rebels around 8 p.m. local time (1400 GMT).

Karuna who was the LTTE's powerful eastern commander broke ranks with the main stream group in March last year.

Although his whereabout are not known yet his revolt led to a series of internecine killings since his breaking up.

The main stream group has blamed the military of colluding with Karuna to carry out attacks on the main stream members.

The dispute had affected the Norwegian facilitators' efforts to revive the stalled peace talks between the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels.