The LTTE responded by attacking Sinhalese and Muslim villages and massacring civilians.

* 2005 – Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by an LTTE sniper at his home.

A controversial figure, Thackeray has attracted significant attention by making statements expressing admiration for Hitler as an artist and demagogue, while condemning the Holocaust, inciting violence against Muslims, expressing support for the LTTE, and taking strong stances on the aspects of popular culture, including fervent opposition to the celebration of Valentine's Day.

A fast attack boat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam | rebel LTTE in Sri Lanka in 2003 passes the hulk of an LTTE supply ship that had been sunk by government aircraft, Sri Lankan Civil War ( 1983-2009 )

Jordanian vessel MV Farah III, hijacked and towed into Mullaitivu shores by LTTE in December 2006.

It is suspected that the vessel was hijacked by the LTTE and is now being used as a phantom vessel.

Most of the smuggling of Tamil people to western countries was carried out by LTTE.

The prices charged by LTTE to go to countries such as Canada was extremely higher than the normal cost to travel.

A cost of LKR 4 million per immigrant was " enforced " by LTTE operatives.

LTTE had coerced Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora and Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka to give it money, by threatening the safety of their relatives or property in areas under its control.

In 1990, Canadian authorities uncovered a passport forgery scheme run by LTTE.

* Humanitarian Operation timeline, 1981-2009 The history of Sri Lankan armed forces operations and area controlled by LTTE

* Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence LTTE in Brief An overview of LTTE by Sri Lanka Ministry of Defense

* Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora After LTTE Relationship between LTTE and the Tamil diaspora, and consequences of LTTE defeat, by International Crisis Group

* 2009 – Sri Lankan Civil War: The LTTE are defeated by the Sri Lankan government, ending almost 26 years of fighting between the two sides.

According to the Sri Lankan Military these militias were formed after " massacres done by the LTTE " and in the early 1990s they were reformed as the Sri Lankan Home Guard.

From 1983, ethnic tensions were manifested in on-and-off insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE ).

In 1987, the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord was signed and Indian Peace Keeping Force ( IPKF ) was deployed in northern Sri Lanka to stabilize the region by neutralising the LTTE.

In 2009, under the Presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa the Sri Lanka Armed Forces defeated the LTTE, and re-established control of the entire country by the Sri Lankan Government.

The lines to Jaffna, Kankesanturai and Mannar have been destroyed by the LTTE.

In Sri Lanka, thousands of children are believed to be in the ranks of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE ), a rebel group banned as a terrorist organization by a number of countries.

Beginning on 23 July 1983, there was an intermittent insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( the LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers ), a separatist militant organisation which fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north and the east of the island.

The LTTE has accused the Sri Lankan Deep Penetration Units of launching attacks on LTTE leaders and civilians in their areas, although the Sri Lankan Government denies any involvement in these attacks.

The Sri Lankan military launched an offensive, called " Operation Liberation " or Vadamarachchi Operation, during May – June 1987, to regain control of the territory in the Jaffna peninsula from the LTTE.

On 27 September 1998, the LTTE launched the Operation Unceasing Waves II and after heavy fighting captured Kilinochchi, thus winning Battle of Kilinochchi.

The LTTE returned to the offensive with the Operation Unceasing Waves III on 2 November 1999.

In 1986, the campaign against the insurgency was stepped up and in 1987, retaliating an increasingly bloody insurgent movement, Operation Liberation was launched against LTTE strongholds in Jaffna Peninsula, involving nearly four thousand troops, supported by helicopter gunships as well as Ground attack aircraft.

The UNP easily came to power in the 2001 election in a platform of peace with LTTE and economic resurgence, and won all but one district in the country.

It is widely believed that if not for the boycott of the polls in the North and parts of the East, allegedly due to LTTE intimidation, Wickramsinghe would have won.

In November 1993 the LTTE succeeded in the Battle of Pooneryn.

Since then, aided by the destruction of a number of large arms smuggling vessels that belonged to the LTTE, and an international crackdown on the funding for the Tamil Tigers, the government took control of the entire area previously controlled by the Tamil Tigers, including their de-facto capital Kilinochchi, main military base Mullaitivu and the entire A9 highway, leading the LTTE to finally admit defeat on 17 May 2009.

* 1987 – First instance of the LTTE using suicide attacks on Sri Lankan Army.

In January 2011, Swiss authorities arrested several LTTE members on money laundering.

* Humanitarian Operation-Factual Analysis, July 2006-May 2009 A report on strength and impact of LTTE from Sri Lanka Ministry of Defense

* Rise and Fall of the LTTE-An Overview A Sri Lanka Guardian article on characteristics of LTTE

The Sri Lankan population after 1981 census are based on estimations given that large areas of northern Sri Lanka were under LTTE control and that large numbers of Tamils have fled abroad.

The Sri Lankan Civil War which raged on and off from 1983 to 2009, between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE ) saw large scale asymmetric warfare.

The LTTE pioneered the use of suicide bombing and perfected it with the use of male / female suicide bombers both on and off battlefield ; use of explosive-filled boats for suicide attacks on military shipping ; use of light aircraft targeting military installations.

* 1998, January 25: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE ) terrorists commit a deadly suicide attack on Sri Lanka's most sacred Buddhist site and a UNESCO World Heritage centre: the Temple of the Tooth, where Buddha's tooth relic is enshrined.

In 2007, the government shifted its offensive to the north of the country, and formally announced its withdrawal from the ceasefire agreement on 2 January 2008, alleging that the LTTE violated the agreement over 10, 000 times.

In July 1983, the LTTE launched a deadly ambush on a Sri Lanka Army check point Four Four Bravo outside the town of Thirunelveli, killing an officer and 12 soldiers.

A tentative ceasefire held in 1990 as the LTTE occupied itself with destroying rival Tamil groups while the government cracked down on the JVP uprising.

On 11 June 1990, the LTTE massacred 600 Policemen in the Eastern Province after they had surrendered on promises of safe conduct.

The government placed an embargo on food and medicine entering the Jaffna peninsula and the air force relentlessly bombed LTTE targets in the area.

The LTTE broke the ceasefire and blew up two Sri Lanka Navy gun boats known as SLNS ' Sooraya ' and ' Ranasuru ' on 19 April, thus beginning the next phase of the war, dubbed Eelam War III.

Hopes for peace gained ground as the LTTE declared a unilateral ceasefire in December 2000, but they cancelled it on 24 April 2001, and launched another offensive against the government.

In July 2001, the LTTE carried out a devastating suicide attack on Bandaranaike International Airport, destroying eight of the air force's planes ( 2 IAI Kfirs, 1 Mil-17, 1 Mil-24, 3 K-8 trainers, 1 MiG-27 ) and four Sri Lankan Airlines planes ( 2 Airbus A330s, 1 A340 and 1 A320 ), dampening the economy and causing tourism, a vital foreign exchange earner for the government, to plummet.