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 leader Prabhakaran denied allegations of killing civilians , claiming to condemn such acts of violence ; and claimed that LTTE had instead attacked armed Home Guards who were " death-squads let loose on Tamil civilians " and Sinhalese settlers who were " brought to the Tamil areas to forcibly occupy the land . " The state-sponsored settlements of Sinhalese in the northern and eastern parts of the island which the LTTE considered to be the traditional homeland of Tamils became " the sites of some of the worst violence . " According to the International Crisis Group , the Sri Lankan government implemented the military-led settlements of Sinhalese community in Tamil areas in order to create " a buffer to the expansion of LTTE control " and to " undermine Tamil nationalist claims on a contiguous north-eastern Tamil homeland . " The continuous inflow of Sinhalese settlers in Tamil areas since the 1950s had become a source of inter-ethnic violence and had been one of the major grievances expressed by the LTTE . As armed Sinhalese villages were established in Tamil areas , many Tamil families were forcibly displaced by the army from their traditional villages and the LTTE retaliated by attacking the settlers
Kattankudy mosque massacre
Kattankudy mosque massacre
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam