Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

TARGETS AND TARGETING • 661likelihood that the Taliban will continue to be an effective forcewithin the nation and that peace can come only through some form ofreconciliation or inclusion of the Taliban in some form of a coalitiongovernment. An Environics Group poll conducted in 2006 revealedthat while 73 percent of Afghans nationwide had negative views ofthe Taliban, at least 74 percent favored negotiations with the groupwhile 54 percent were willing to support a coalition government withthem. President Karzai rationalized his offer to negotiate with theTaliban as a means of splitting apart the more opportunistic Talibanfrom their more ideological hard-core base. However, the Talibanleaders have refused such offers of negotiation or reconciliation solong as foreign forces remain within the country.TAMIL TIGERS. Name used by more than 25 different Tamil guerrillaorganizations fighting the Sinhalese-dominated government of SriLanka. The youth league of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF)political party, founded on 14 May 1972, attracted younger, moremilitant Tamils, who founded the Tamil New Tigers as a more activistclique within the youth league. On 5 May 1976 the Tamil New Tigersreconstituted themselves separately from the TULF as the LiberationTigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Approximately 25 different unrelated“Tiger” organizations have appeared since the LTTE began. TheLTTE and its rival Tamil Tiger groups engaged in internecine battlingfrom May 1986 to September 1987. By April 1989 the LTTE and theremnants of three other Tiger organizations formed an umbrella group,the Eelam National Liberation Front. The LTTE and other Tamil Tigergroups had enjoyed the state sponsorship of Tamil Nadu State in India,but such support ended after the Tamil Tiger groups began attackingIndian army forces sent to Sri Lanka to restore order.TARGETS AND TARGETING. Terrorism is distinguished fromother forms of political violence, such as conventional warfare andguerrilla warfare, in that it is largely carried out by people other thanthe official military personnel of a nation-state, and also by the tendencyof terrorists to attack civilian rather than military targets. Thetargeting is intended not simply to harm the immediate victims butalso to capture and manipulate a target audience through which theterrorists will direct their political demands. Government buildings,military installations, and high-security facilities, such as nuclearpower plants, which have armed guards, surveillance perimeters,