COLOMBO, April (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan military said on Wednesday that Tamil Tiger rebels' technical wing chief was killed in a confrontation with government troops in the north recently.

    Officials from the Denfense Ministry said in a statement that S. Kirupakaran alias Madivalahan, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels' technical wing chief, was killed in the battle field in the Mullaittivuin district.

    Madivalahan was born in the Jaffna peninsula and has reportedly spent most of his time at the eastern Trincomalee district before joining the LTTE as a full time activist.

    He was said to be the mastermind and chief coordinator of the rebels' satellite cum radio communication network, the military said.

    Meanwhile, the military said the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabakaran's son Charles Anthony had been injured in a recent battle.

    Anthony was the eldest of the rebel leader's three children and he was believed to be heading the LTTE's air wing.

    The verification of the claims is almost impossible as the authorities do not allow independent journalists or observers to travel to the battle field.

    The military say the LTTE's over two-decade-old armed struggle to set up a separate homeland for the minority Tamil community is nearing its end as the organization is confined to an area of just 21 sq. km in Mullaittivu down from over 15,000 sq. km they held when the current military offensive began in 2006.

    More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the mid-1980s in one of the world's longest civil wars.