Introduction
It may sound simple and easy as the phrase may be, “One man’s terrorist is actually another man’s freedom fighter.” This is clearly elaborated in a discussion involving various categories of dangerous terrorist groups operating in the world today. Some of these groups are more acceptable in their countries as they operate with respect to political or ideological agenda but later, their nations realize that they are a threat to peace and stability of their own motherland (Bhattacharji, 2009). In this essay, we are going to discuss and analyze two terrorist groups and highlight some of the attacks that they claimed to bear responsibilities for.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
The Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and also known as the Tamil Tigers, originates from Sri Lanka in the early 1980s. They have the nationality of Sri Lanka and are from Tamils ethnicity who feels persecuted by the majority ethnic Sinhalese. According to the 2001 government census, the Tamils community had ten percent of Sri Lanka’s Island population, and most of them are Hindus. Differences between the Tamils and Sri Lankans originated from colonialism, where the Sri Lankans believed that Tamils were collaborators with the British. The population of Sri Lanka comprises ethnic Muslims, Tamils, and the majority Sinhalese, who are Christians (CFR.org., 2010).
The LTTE terrorist has ranged between seven thousand and fifteen thousand soldiers who are notorious for suicide bombing. Since the late 1980s, the LTTE terrorist group has conducted and linked with almost two hundred suicide attacks, which targets Office buildings, Buddhist shrines, and transits hubs. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), LTTE invented of suicide belt and introduced the involvement of women in suicide attacks.
Over the last 20 years, LTTE has committed several assassinations of high-profile people, including two heads of states. Another attack includes; June 2000 assassination of Sri Lanka Industrialization minister C.V Goonaratne, January 2008 assassination of a member of parliament from opposition party UNP, December 1999 suicide bombing in Colombo that wounded Sri Lanka president Chandrika Kumaratunga and many more attacks. Both the Sri Lanka government and LTTE forces have been blamed by the human rights societies for engaging juniors in the military operations (Bhattacharji, 2009).
Hezbollah
This is a Muslim political group with a militant division in its operations. It’s active in Lebanon, where it operates social facilities such as schools, hospitals, and agricultural services. The group was founded in 1982 as a result of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and joined by the coalition group known as Islamic Jihad. The main ideology of forming the group, which resulted in being a terrorist, was to prevent Israel invasion. It consists of thousands of militants and activist, and the group is well-armed with modern weapons which steer heads its operations (CFR.org., 2010).
Hezbollah and its affiliates have been linked with a good number of terrorist activities in the world, which includes a series of kidnapping of foreigners in Lebanon, suicide bombing at Beirut, Lebanon in 1983, 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847, 1990 attack in Argentina, 1992 bombing of the Jewish community center and many more ruthless attacks to Israelites and innocent people (Bhattacharji, 2009).
After May 2008 violence Lebanon’s Lawmakers were pressed to accept the group, and in August same year, Lebanon parliament approved a national unity government giving the group and its ally’s eleven out of thirty cabinet seats. During June 2009 election, the group lost to Lebanon’s ruling and retained only two cabinet seats, but this could not weaken the group. Hezbollah terrorist group has been seen as international threats by the western government due to their strong and modern weapons.
References
Bhattacharji, P. (2009). Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam: aka Tamil Tigers; Sri Lanka, separatists. Web.
CFR.org. (2010). Hezbollah: aka Hizbollah, Hizbu’llah. Web.