( CNN ) -- The Tamil Tigers have been invited by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to lay down their arms after government forces retook the city of Kilinochchi Friday , once the center of power for the rebel group . Sri Lanka 's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has called on the Tamil Tigers to stop fighting . But while Colombo celebrated the government success with fireworks , within an hour a suicide bomber abruptly shattered whatever hopes the president may have had for immediate peace . The bomber , riding a motorcycle , blew himself up outside air force headquarters in Colombo , killing two air force police officers and a member of the bomb-disposal unit , authorities said . The new year may signal a turn in Sri Lanka 's conflict -- but it is unlikely to be an end . The Tamil Tigers have their roots in the earliest days of Sri Lanka 's independence in 1948 . But since then they have grown from a political group intent on protecting their rights to a fierce rebel movement classified by the United States and others as a terrorist organization . The conflict between the Tigers and the government has lasted more than 25 years and left at least 65,000 people dead . The Tigers are part of the island 's minority Tamils , an ethnic group that has lived on the island for centuries since their ancestors came over from southern India . These Sri Lankan Tamils are distinct from Indian Tamils , an even smaller minority , who came with the British colonists in the 19th century . Sri Lanka 's majority Sinhalese have lived on the island much longer than the Tamils and represent about three-quarters of the population , according to the U.S. State Department . Most historians believe they came over from northern India in the 6th century B.C . It was Sri Lanka 's post-independence government that sparked the rise of the Tamil Tigers . After 1948 , Tamils started growing uneasy with the country 's unitary government and apprehensive that the Sinhalese might abuse Tamil rights . They felt marginalized when S.W.R.D . Bandaranaike became prime minister after winning the 1956 elections on a platform of Sinhalese nationalism . The Tamils bristled at his declaration that Sinhala would be the official language and protested against government policies deemed favorable to the Sinhalese . Violence and radicalization started to grow during the following decades , and by the 1970s , Tamil politicians were demanding a separate Tamil state -- Tamil Eelam -- in northern and eastern Sri Lanka , the Tamils ' traditional homeland . Other Tamil groups , however , sought a separate state by force . Among them were the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE ) , founded in 1976 -- and now simply known as the Tamil Tigers . The violence still raging today intensified in 1983 , when the Tamil Tigers killed 13 Sinhalese soldiers . It led to the largest outburst of violence in the island 's history , with hundreds of Tamils killed , tens of thousands left homeless and more than 100,000 fleeting to south India , according to the U.S. State Department . The government began trying to suppress the Tamil Tigers in the north and east while the Tigers launched terrorist attacks in the capital of Colombo and elsewhere . Fighting has continued for the most part since then , halted briefly by a handful of peace agreements , some of them high-profile . Under an accord signed with India in 1987 , the government gave in to some Tamil demands , including devolution of power to the provinces and official status for the Tamil language . But fighting continued . The Tamils fought an Indian peacekeeping force deployed in the north and east as part of the 1987 accord , and after years of bloody fighting , the Indians withdrew in early 1990 . The United States designated the LTTE as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997 . In February 2002 , Sri Lanka 's government and the LTTE signed a cease-fire agreement at Norwegian-sponsored talks . But the LTTE dropped out of the negotiations a year later , claiming they were being marginalized . They launched a suicide bombing campaign the next year . The Tigers stepped up their attacks in April 2006 with an explosion at a Sinhalese market and two suicide bombings that killed a top army commander and seriously wounded another . Weeks later , the European Union designated the LTTE as a terrorist organization . Sri Lankan government forces engaged the rebels in heavy fighting in 2008 in the Kilinochchi region , once the capital and center of political power for the Tamil Tigers . The Tigers ran a parallel administration from Kilinochchi with their own police force , courts , prisons and taxes . But after Sri Lanka launched a new offensive against the rebels in the autumn , the insurgents moved their nerve center and logistics bases to Mullaitivu , on the northeastern coast . After hovering on the outskirts of Kilinochchi for more than a month , government troops retook the city . Rajapaksa declared it a `` victory against separatism '' -- but violence soon followed .
Conflict between Tamil Tigers and government has lasted more than 25 years . At least 65,000 killed , thousands homeless , 100,000-plus fled to south India . Tigers have their roots in the earliest days of Sri Lanka 's independence in 1948 . The group has demanded a separate Tamil state in northern and eastern Sri Lanka .