Initially named the "Tamil New Tigers," the "Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam" (LTTE) were founded in 1972 by Velupillai Prabhakaran, only 17-years old, born into Karaiyar, a lower caste of fishermen and fishmongers in northern Ceylon. The LTTE was founded as a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist organization dedicated to the brutal eradication of the caste system in the Tamil community and to the waging of a "protracted people's war" in order to create a sovereign Tamil State on Ceylon. In terms of ideology and methods, the LTTE closely resembles the Khmer Rouge of the Pol Pot era.
The Tigers have held a liberated area in northeastern Ceylon since 1987, namely the Jaffna peninsula, approximately 1,000 km2, home to between 700,000 and 800,000 Tamils. Before the civil war, Jaffna was the second largest urban center on the island. The Tigers also have a deep-water port on their territory: Point Pedro.

The "Army" of the Tigers is without a doubt the deadliest guerrilla group in the world. According to some sources, its forces are estimated to have 6,000 to 10,000 combatants. Over the years, the Tigers have received aid from other extremist movements. Among the Palestinians, one notable source has been George Habash's PFLP [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine]. According to Ulanath Thamilar, an LTTE periodical published in Toronto, Canada, the war was costing the Tigers approximately $ 1,6 million per month in 1992, i.e., about $ 20 million per year. That Spring, the Tigers were trying to collect $ 20 million from 10,000 families living in the liberated areas in order to purchase and equip high-speed attack craft at $ 1 million per unit, for the "Sea Tigers, their "navy."

The LTTE have also created dauntingly effective suicide commando units--the "Black Tigers” (Karma Puligal in Tamil, see below). Furthermore, according to the Indian intelligence community, the LTTE now have ULMs and high-speed patrol craft at their disposal. They are said to be trying to procure some midget submarines, drones, and gliders for the Black Tigers' suicide operations. They have also reportedly purchased sophisticated on-board radar systems for their "navy."

Finally, in September 1994, the Tigers issued a press release in Great Britain threatening to put arsenic into Ceylon tea, produced by members of the Sinhalese majority loyal to the regime in Colombo.