How the Tamil Tigers have become involved in piracy

The Tamil Tigers are not a species of endangered cats; instead they are a notorious band of violent terrorists (acknowledged as such by over 30 countries in the world) that are based in northern Sri Lanka. They originally founded their organization in 1976, as a secessionist movement that seeks to create an independent Tamil state in the north of Sri Lanka [PBS Frontline, 2002]. Today they are commonly referred to as the LTTE or "Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam".

The LTTE are a very well organized militant group known for extremely violent attacks on civilians as well as carrying out assassinations of Sri Lankan and Indian officials. This group is also associated with the recruiting of young children as soldiers and is given credit for being the first to use the "suicide belt" bomb. They are also known to use women frequently as suicide bombers in their terrorist attacks. It has been reported by the media (PBS among others) that LTTE has delivered actual more suicide bombings than many other terrorist groups like Hamas and al-Qaeda.

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