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Group profile: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
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| 27 March 2007 |
The LTTE is a model for existing and emerging insurgent groups. The international security and intelligence community generally assesses the LTTE as one of the world's most effective terrorist organisations. It is the only organisation to have assassinated two heads of government and develop a sea arm capable of countering a conventional navy. It also possesses a dedicated suicide squad, the Black Tigers.
The LTTE is likely to remain a formidable force until the government of Sri Lanka either develops force structures sufficient to destroy them militarily or a negotiated settlement is reached paving the way for the entry of the LTTE into the legitimate political arena.
The group maintains a very high level of readiness through effective training, the acquisition of modern equipment and, for an insurgent group, considerable capabilities for conventional war, with static naval clusters and fortified artillery positions.
It is likely the LTTE has the ability to concentrate a force of several thousand to strike anywhere in northeastern Sri Lanka and that it could mount suicide and other operations that would cause immense damage, especially in Colombo.
The LTTE maintains a well-equipped navy, the Sea Tigers, and Hagrup Haukland, the chief of the Norwegian-led military mission monitoring the ceasefire, stated in May 2005 that the group had constructed airstrips in the jungles of Mullaitivu and near Trincomalee and had acquired two light aircraft.
Targets, tactics and methodology
Battle-hardened LTTE cadres are deployed to strike heavily fortified military targets. The LTTE has vast experience in limited action against Sri Lankan forces and is highly developed in the art of mobile warfare. In response to territorial reversals in the East, the group has displayed a capacity to diversify targets, including numerous suicide attacks against army personnel and high-profile military attacks such as the attack on 25 April 2006 targeting an army headquarters compound in the capital Colombo during which Sri Lankan General Sarath Fonseka was severely injured.
The group has grown in terms of unconventional and semi-conventional capability, and has sought to develop its conventional force capability. Extensive use is made of landmines or improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in defending approaches to the areas it occupies.
Attacks against persons and/or on economic targets other than those in the northeast are conducted largely by the so-called Black Tiger suicide squads. These cadres depend on helpers, mostly from the local minority Tamil community, to play a supportive role in the provision of basic intelligence, safe houses, transport or acting as couriers.
Sources of weapons
Explosives, weapons and other supplies have come from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, just 22 miles away and a 45-minute dash by speedboat; the Sri Lankan navy has intercepted only a fraction of this incoming arsenal.
During the past decade, the LTTE has transported consignments of weapons from Bulgaria (SA 14, LAW), Ukraine (50 tonnes of TNT and 10 tonnes of RDX), Cyprus (RPGs), Cambodia (small arms), Thailand (small arms), Myanmar (small arms) and Croatia (32,400 mortars). The amount of explosives and mortars transported by the LTTE remains the largest quantity of armaments ever transported by a non-state armed group. Most armaments have been obtained by using forged or adapted end-user certificates.
International efforts to curtail the supply of weaponry to terrorist groups have been at least partially successful in reducing the flow to the LTTE. The absence of a comprehensive defence pact with India has hampered naval co-operation against LTTE maritime procurement. In this context, the LTTE has been able to maintain significant procurement links and has considerably enhanced its heavy artillery supplies during the ceasefire.
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© 2007 Jane's Information Group
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