Notable attacks attributed to the LTTE

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Background

Origins of the Civil War

• Origins of the Civil War
• Black July • Human Rights Issues • Riots and pogroms
• Attributed State terrorism
• Prison massacres
• Tamil militant groups

LTTE

• LTTE • Attributed Terrorist attacks • Child Soldiers
• Attributed assasinations
• Notable Attacks • Expulsion of Muslims from Jaffna

Major figures

• Mahinda Rajapakse
• Velupillai Prabhakaran
• Karuna Amman
• Sarath Fonseka

Indian Involvement

• Operation Poomalai
• Indo-Sri Lanka Accord
• Indian Peace Keeping Force
• Rajiv Gandhi • RAW

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LTTE is a rebel group active in Sri Lanka that is banned as a terrorist group by 29 countries. It has carried out numerous attacks that are notable since 1983. Some were targeted assassinations, others against military installations and yet others terrorist attacks against civilian targets. Following is a List of Notable attacks attributed to the LTTE.. Notable attacks include important or high casualty attacks on military , civilian political, or religious targets.

This list does not include actions carried out by other Tamil militant groups, by the government of Sri Lanka, or by Sinhalese or Muslim Para-military groups. Terrorist attacks by the LTTE are covered in Terrorist attacks attributed to the LTTE.

1 1980s
2 1990s
3 2000s
4 See also
5 References

[edit] 1980s

July 23, 1983: 13 soldiers killed in LTTE ambush in Jaffna, sparking anti-Tamil riots leading to the deaths of unknown number of Tamils(several hundred killed according to MPIT). Conflict develops in north of island between army and LTTE.^[1]

May 14, 1985: During the Anuradhapura massacre 146 civilians shot dead by suspected LTTE militants (including women ,children and Buddhist monks) inside the sacred Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura.^[1]

April 21, 1987: LTTE militants's bomb explosion in Central Bus Stand, Pettah, Colombo, killed 110 civilians, 2 Policemen and an Army.^[1]

5 July 1987: In the first ever suicide attack by the LTTE Black Tigers "Captain Miller", drives a small truck laden with explosives into a Sri Lanka Army camp in Nelliady, Jaffna peninsula, killing himself and over 50 Sri Lankan soldiers.

[edit] 1990s

See also: Massacre of police officers in Eastern Sri Lanka in June 1990

June 10, 1990: The LTTE signals the breakdown of ceasefire talks by overrunning police stations located throughout the North East of Sri Lanka. The LTTE massacred most of the 400 to 600 police officers captured after they had surrendered to the LTTE during this attack.^[2]

May 21, 1991: LTTE suicide bomber Thenmuli Rajaratnam assassinated former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi while the latter was campaigning for a parliamentary candidate in Tamil Nadu, also killing an additional 13 civilians.^[1] Following the assassination, seven suspected LTTE activists committed suicide after being surrounded by police.^[3] In June 2006, the LTTE issued a formal apology for this action. However, the Indian government quickly responded saying forgiving Tamil Tigers for the 1991 killing of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi would amount to endorsing their ideology of terror.^[4]

July 1991:The army's Elephant Pass base, which controls access to the Jaffna peninsula, is surrounded by 5,000 LTTE cadres. More than two thousand died on both sides in the month-long siege, before 10,000 government troops arrived to relieve the base.^[5]

April 29, 1992: LTTE cadres kill 69 Muslim civilians including 5 infants. Reprisal attacks by Muslim civilians and homeguards results in the death of 49 Tamil men and.^[6]

May 01, 1993: The LTTE assassinate the President of Sri Lanka while he was attending the annual May Day rally.^[1]

November 10, 1993: Eight officers and 233 soldiers were declared Killed in Action in LTTE's attack on the Pooneryn defences. The LTTE also executed 200 soldiers captured during this attack on the Pooneryn army camp.^[2]

October 24, 1994: Presidential candidate Gamini Dissanayake was assassinated in an LTTE suicide bombing in the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo. At least 50 others died in the attack.^[7]

May 25, 1995: During the Kallarawa massacre 42 civilians including six children are killed by the LTTE in an attack on the Kallarawa fishing village.^[8]

January 31, 1996: An attack by the LTTE on the Colombo Central Bank killed 90 and injured a further 1,400 civilians, damaging other buildings in the process. It was the most deadly LTTE attack on a civilian target in the history of the group's operations.^[1]

July 18, 1996: The LTTE overruns the Sri Lanka Army camp at Mullaitivu. The number of killed in action and missing in action Sri Lankan soldiers from this attack was over 1200.^[9] The LTTE appear to have burnt alive hundreds of Sri Lankan soldiers who had surrendered during the attack on the Mullaitivu army camp.^[10]

July 24, 1996: The LTTE bombs a passenger train killing 70 civilians.^[1]

January 25, 1998: Four likely members of the Black Tiger squad drove an explosives-laden truck into the Sri Dalada Maligawa (or "Temple of the Tooth"), a major Buddhist shrine, killing 7 and injuring 25.The attack took place just days before foreign dignitaries were expected to attend celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of Sri Lankan independence at the temple.^[1]

May 14, 1998: A member of the Black Tiger squad jumped in front of a vehicle carrying Sri Lankan Brigadier Larry Wijeratne and detonated explosives, killing the general and two guards. Wijeratne was the commander of Sri Lankan forces in the Point Pedro area of the Jaffna peninsula in the Tamil-inhabited north of the country. Press reports described the assassination as a "serious blow" to the government's efforts in the area.

September 18, 1999: LTTE cadres massacre 50 Sinhalese civilians during an attack on three villages.^[1]

[edit] 2000s

April 22, 2000:The LTTE overrun the most important military base in the Northern province, the Elephant Pass base.^[11]

July 24, 2001: An LTTE 14-man suicide squad attacked a Sri Lanka Air Force base and the adjoining Bandaranaike International Airport. They destroyed many aircraft, crippling the country's economy and reducing tourism.^[12]

August 12, 2005: Lakshman Kadirgamar, the foreign minister of Sri Lanka and an ethnic Tamil was shot by an unidentified sniper (no formal evidence to link LTTE to the murder)^[13] in Colombo as he was getting out of the swimming pool at his private residence. The EU holds the LTTE responsible for this murder and bans its members from traveling to the EU.^[14]

January 7, 2006: A suspected LTTE fishing boat loaded with explosives detonates and destroys a Sri Lankan navy boat as it leaves the port of Trincomalee, killing 13 sailors.^[15]

April 25, 2006: A suicide bomber, believed to belong to the LTTE, attempts to kill Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka, seriously injuring him while killing eight others and injuring thirty more. The explosives were disguised as the late stages of pregnancy, and the bomber was originally believed to be pregnant, although subsequent medical tests have been inconclusive.^[16]

May 11, 2006: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Sea Tigers attacks and sink one Sri Lanka Navy vessel while seriously damaging another. The attack is ruled as a grave violation of the Cease Fire Agreement by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission. In response, LTTE threathened the truce monitors not to be aboard naval vessels.^[17] 18 sailors perish on the Sri Lankan patrolboat, and an unknown number of Sea Tiger cadres also die in the attack.^[18] The fact that the lives of two Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission monitors on board these ships were endangered by this attack, triggered the European Union decision to ban the LTTE.^[19]

May 29, 2006: Thirteen farm workers were cut and shot to death by the LTTE in a village around Welikanda in Plonnaruwa. The government suspected the LTTE were responsible, while the LTTE responded that they had no involvement and that they were falsely implicated.^[20]^[21]

June 15, 2006: The LTTE blow up a civilian bus killing 68, including 10 children and 3 pregnant women. approximately 60 more are injured.

June 26, 2006: The third highest ranking Sri Lankan military officer, Major General Parami Kulatunga was wounded in an attack by LTTE and died after being taken to the hospital. Two other military escorts and a passerby were also killed.^[22]

October 16, 2006: In the deadliest ever suicide attack by the LTTE in Sri Lanka, a suicide bomber in a truck kills 103 unarmed sailors on buses going or returning from leave at a transit point and wounds over 150 other sailors. Several civilians may also have died.^[23]