ATTACKS BY THE TAMIL TIGERS

The LTTE has launched attacks on civilian targets several times. Notable attacks include the Aranthalawa Massacre, Anuradhapura massacre, Kattankudy mosque massacre, the Kebithigollewa massacre and the Dehiwala train bombing. Civilians have also been killed in attacks on economic targets, such as the Central Bank bombing.

The LTTE has carried out more suicide bombings than any other group in the world, and more than Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and al-Qaeda combined.
The LTTE was also responsible for a 1998 attack on the Buddhist shrine, and UNESCO world heritage site, Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy that killed 8 worshipers. The attack was symbolic in that the shrine, which houses a sacred tooth of the Buddha, is the holiest Buddhist shrine in Sri Lanka. Other Buddhist shrines have been attacked, notably the Sambuddhaloka Temple in Colombo that killed 9 worshipers.
The LTTE's Black Tigers has been attributed with the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, who was killed in 1991 using a prototype suicide vest, and Ranasinghe Premadasa, assassinated in 1993.

The LTTE is responsible for forcibly removing, or "ethnically cleansing",Sinhalese and Muslim inhabitants from areas under its control, and using violence against those who refuse to leave.
In total, over 12,700 Muslim families, roughly 75,000 people, were forcibly evicted from LTTE-controlled areas on the Northern Province.

Criminal activities
On the 10th of January, 2008, the FBI stated that the LTTE has raised funds under a variety of cover organizations, often by posing as charities. For example, a great deal of money was raised for LTTE following the 2004 tsunami that devastated Sri Lanka and many other countries. One factor that has greatly benefited the LTTE has been its sophisticated international support network. While some of the funding obtained by the LTTE is from legitimate fund raising and extortion among Tamil diaspora, a significant portion is obtained through criminal activities, involving sea piracy, human smuggling, drug trafficking and gunrunning.