The arms procurement department, which is responsible for sourcing cutting edge military technology, is the LTTE’s oldest international wing. Some reports claim that they have mini-submarines bought from international arms dealers. The Sea Tigers are reported to possess radar-evading stealth boats (probably North Korean built) but their attempts to build submarines failed when their base in Thailand was discovered. The LTTE craft vary from heavily armed gunboats and troop carriers to ocean going supply vessels, all most all designed and built indigenously. Their personnel include sea-going units, onshore marine engineers, maintenance personnel, naval communications and intelligence cadres, and, the commando Black Sea Tigers. The Sea Tigers is the largest wing of the LTTE. The LTTE’s most famous suicide mission was against Rajiv Gandhi, a former Indian prime minister. Women have always played an important role in the LTTE armed forces and have their own brigades which work in tandem with the regular infantry, artillery and naval units.īlack Tiger women go through the same training as their male colleagues. The applicants then go through a year’s training programme designed to prepare them for suicide missions.
Leopard Brigade (also known as Chiruthaigal)Īpplications to join the Black Tigers are personally vetted by Prabhakaran.The naval wing, known as the Sea Tigers.The Black Tigers unit, which is responsible for conducting suicide attacks.An elite guerrilla force known as the Charles Anthony Regiment.
At its height, the LTTE had over 10,000 armed combatants. The units also follow a similar structural pattern with squads as the smallest and the regiment as the largest military unit.Īrea commanders are responsible for tactical military decisions in their areas. These include two grades of enlisted ranks, non-commissioned officers and commissioned officers. LTTE military ranks and grades are similar to those of the Sri Lankan army. The political wing also has an international secretariat, which runs the global LTTE network and its foreign relations cell. The political wing of the LTTE oversees the civil administration of its territory through departments such as the police force, law courts, administrative offices, planning and reconstruction, television and radio broadcasting stations, and so on. The CGM deliberates both on operational military strategies as well as the administrative governance of LTTE-held territories. The LTTE has two wings – the political and the military.īoth of these wings are controlled by a Central Governing Committee (CGM) headed by Vellupiali Prabhakaran who decides all aspects of organisational policy – supposedly in consultation with CGM leaders. Prabhakaran is the ‘supremo’ of the LTTE
What is the organisational structure of the LTTE? These armed groups lost ground and became obsolete as the LTTE killed their leaders and absorbed their trained cadres. Other prominent armed groups included the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOT), the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation (EROS) and the Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front (ENDLF). No, initially the LTTE was one of many Tamil armed groups. Is the LTTE the only armed Tamil rebel group? The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was one of the many groups that came into existence to fight for Tamil rights.įormed in 1975 with its base in the northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka, the group vowed to form a separate state called Tamil Eelam. After 1948, the Tamils also became the targets of numerous riots that swept through the island nation. Believing that these riots were instigated by the Sinhalese authorities, Tamils began calling for an independent state and for an organisation to protect their rights.