From the Guardian UK (h/t Blood & Treasure):

Eyewitnesses have provided accounts of how the gunmen involved in yesterday’s Mumbai massacre landed undetected in the heart of the port city’s bustling downtown area.

At least some of the terrorists, said to be in their early twenties and armed with AK-47 assault rifles and hand grenades, landed on the coast of Mumbai’s commercial and entertainment neighbourhood in light and fast Gemini boats, powered by small outboard motors.

These inflatable dinghies, according to Indian navy sources quoted by the Headlines Today TV news channel, were launched from a larger vessel, the MV Alfa, which arrived near Mumbai sometime yesterday and anchored offshore a distance from India’s financial capital.

According to TV reports, the navy seized one Gemini craft laden with ammunition, as well as satellite phone, which could give vital clues about the attackers. . . .

“There is no question that the armed men who landed in south Mumbai in the Gemini boats came from a larger boat anchored off shore,” said retired Rear Admiral Raja Menon, a strategic affairs expert. “The larger boat left without waiting for the men to return. The armed men were on a one-way ticket.”

What struck me about this account is not merely the sophistication of an amphibious attack, but also its use of a tactic pioneered by the Sri Lankan-based Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam — perhaps the most vicious terrorist organization in the world today:

In terms of the overall success of the LTTE, the Sea Tigers’ logistics fleet is the most important part of its armoury. It operates two classes of vessels: a fleet of around 11 ocean-going freighters and fast-moving coastal transit boats. Ships from the ocean-going fleet rendezvous with the fast coastal transit boats about 200 km off the northeast coast of the island. . . .

The Sea Tigers have also adapted a wide range of craft for suicide missions. . . .The number of crew members and armament types used in a suicide attack varies from mission to mission. Initially, the Sea Tigers’ suicide craft had a crew of two to ensure that the mission could not be terminated by killing a single operator. More recently, they have carried a crew of three to reduce this possibility further.

This, of course, is not the first time that other terrorists have copied LTTE tactics.  The Tigers are widely credited with having taught the world how to go about suicide bombing:

[T]he Tigers are the fathers of modern-day suicide bombing — not only masters at keeping up a fresh supply of new recruits, but also willing exporters of their expertise. . . .Technically, the Tigers did not invent modern suicide bombing — the first such attack was against the American embassy in Beirut in 1983. They did however turn it into a vicious art form. Tigers adapted explosives so that they could be used on land, sea and air — thanks to the purchase of what Sri Lankan intelligence services say is a small squadron of microlight aircraft. Bombs were disguised to fit around, and even inside, the body.

The LTTE’s first such attack was in 1987, killing 40 Sri Lankan army troops.  Since then, LTTE attacks have killed hundreds, including Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa and former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Given its past history, and given the close relationship between the Indian and Sri Lankan governments (despite the presence of a large Tamil minority in southern India), I have to wonder whether the LTTE is now exporting its naval tactics.

One other note:  why is it that those operating off the Somali coast are known as pirates, but the LTTE naval operations (and this operation in Mumbai) are known as terrorists?

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