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The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil: தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், romanized: Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, Sinhala: දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, romanized: Demaḷa īḷām vimukti koṭi, commonly known as the LTTE or the Tamil Tigers) was a Tamil militant and political organisation that was based in northeastern Sri Lanka. Its aim was to secure an independent state of Tamil Eelam in the north and east in response to the state policies of successive Sri Lankan governments towards Tamils.
Founded in May 1976 by Velupillai Prabhakaran, it was involved in armed clashes against the Sri Lankan state forces and by the late 1980s was the dominant Tamil militant group in Sri Lanka. The escalation of intermittent conflict into a full-scale nationalist insurgency however did not commence before the countrywide pogroms against Tamils. Since 1983, more than 80,000 have been killed in the civil war that lasted 26 years, a large number of whom were Sri Lankan Tamil civilians.
The LTTE which started out as a guerrilla force, over time, increasingly came to resemble that of a conventional fighting force with a well-developed military wing that included a navy, an airborne unit, an intelligence wing, and a specialised suicide attack unit. It was designated as a terrorist organisation by 32 countries, including the European Union, Canada, the United States, and India. The Indian state's relationship with the LTTE in particular, was complex, as it went from initially supporting the organisation to engaging it in direct combat through the Indian Peace Keeping Force, owing to changes in the former's foreign policy during the phase of the conflict.
It was known for using women and children in combat and is recognised for having carried out a number of high-profile assassinations, including Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993 and former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
Over the course of the conflict, the Tamil Tigers frequently exchanged control of territory in the north-east with the Sri Lankan military, with the two sides engaging in intense military confrontations. It was involved in four unsuccessful rounds of peace talks with the Sri Lankan government and at its peak in 2000, the LTTE was in control of 76% of the landmass in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. Prabhakaran headed the organisation from its inception until his death in 2009.
The LTTE is a rare example of a secular group that has used suicide bombing as a tactic. Religious apologists have cited the LTTE, along with Imperial Japan, as an argument against the claim that suicide bombings are religiously motivated. Although the LTTE was a secular organisation, its members were free to hold whatever beliefs they see fit.