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
Anuradhapura massacre
Anuradhapura massacre
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam