The LTTE and their major assassinations

The LTTE, which may have between 7,000 and 15,000 armed combatants (PDF), is infamous for its suicide bombings. Since the late 1980s, the group has conducted approximately two hundred suicide attacks which are carried out by elite squads called Black Tigers. Targets have included transit hubs, Buddhist shrines, and office buildings. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the LTTE invented the suicide belt and pioneered the use of women in suicide attacks. LTTE fighters wore cyanide capsules around their necks so they could commit suicide if they were captured.

Beyond suicide bombings, the LTTE used conventional bombs and Claymore mines to attack political and civilian targets, and gunned down both Sri Lankan officials and civilians. In an April 2008 report, the U.S. State Department also accuses the LTTE of engaging in abductions and extortion. Many of the LTTE's victims have been public officials. Over the past twenty years, the LTTE has been accused of assassinating almost a dozen high-level figures, including two heads of state.

Assassinations and attacks on officials allegedly committed by the LTTE include;

·         The May 1991 assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at a campaign rally in India

·         the July 1999 assassination of a Sri Lankan member of parliament, Neelan Thiruchelvam, an ethnic Tamil involved in a government-sponsored peace initiative;

·         a pair of December 1999 suicide bombings in Colombo that wounded Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga. the June 2000 assassination of Sri Lankan Industry Minister C.V. Goonaratne;

·         the August 2005 assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar; ]

·         the January 2008 assassination of a member of parliament from the opposition United National Party (UNP), T. Maheswaran. the January 2008 assassination of Sri Lankan Nation-Building Minister D. M. Dassanayake;

·          the February 2008 assassination of two cadres of the political party and paramilitary group Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP). the April 2008 assassination of Sri Lankan Highway Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle.