FACTBOX: Sri Lanka presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Former army commander General Sarath Fonseka is challenging President Mahinda Rajapaksa at Sri Lanka's presidential poll Tuesday, the first national vote since a 25-year war with Tamil Tiger rebels ended last May.

Here are some key facts about Fonseka:

* Fonseka, 59, is a career military officer who entered the army in 1970 and served as army commander from 2005-2009. During that time, he led the victorious military campaign to crush the Tamil Tigers, with a mix of outright firepower and counterinsurgency tactics focusing on special forces "deep penetration" units to attack the Tigers.

* He was twice wounded in combat as an infantry officer and in 1993 led the "Midnight Express" operation to rescue hundreds of soldiers trapped by the Tigers inside the Jaffna Fort. Around that time, he also served alongside Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the president's brother who is widely credited with modernizing Sri Lanka's armed forces and engineering the plan to wipe out the Tigers.

* In April 2006, a female Tamil Tiger suicide bomber infiltrated army headquarters on the pretext of going to a maternity clinic. She blew herself up next to Fonseka's car and nearly killed him. Fonseka was flown overseas for treatment and returned to his desk just three months later. Within days, he had launched the offensive that would totally destroy the Tigers and kill its leadership in less than three years.

* After the war, Fonseka became the first and only serving officer to be promoted to the rank of four-star general. Rajapaksa later appointed him to the newly created position of chief of defense staff. Fonseka quit in November, complaining that the job was designed to sideline him. He also complained that Rajapaksa wrongly suspected him of a coup plot and was taking too much credit for the war victory.

* Fonseka has pledged to abolish the executive presidency, secure the rights of Sri Lanka's minorities including Tamils, and establish media freedom. But few including the motley coalition of political parties backing him expect him to give up any power. A member of the Sinhalese ethnic majority, he has been quoted as saying Tamils should not demand "undue things" since Sri Lanka belongs to the Sinhalese, a quote he later said was taken out of context. He also repeatedly called journalists who wrote articles critical of the military "traitors" and immediately after the war pledged to arrest some of them.

* Fonseka is a U.S. "green card" holder, which entitles him to permanent resident status in the United States. He has two daughters who attend university in Oklahoma. But that status could be in jeopardy, given the allegations of war crimes at the end of the war. Fonseka as army commander could be implicated, under the theory of command responsibility, if war crimes charges are brought in any international forum over the thousands of civilian deaths at the end of the war. In any case, many Sri Lankans consider him a national hero for winning the war.

(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)