Sri Lanka's elusive Tamil Tiger supremo has paid tribute to 273 suicide bombers known as Black Tigers who have carried out devastating attacks in the past 19 years, the guerrillas said on Thursday. Six photographs were released of Velupillai Prabhakaran, 51, meeting with his current band of suicide bombers and lighting an eternal flame to mark the first Black Tiger attack against the military on July 5, 1987. The photographs were released by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which put the number of Black Tigers to have carried out attacks at 273. The figure is up from 261 released by the pro-rebel media in the run up to the suicide bombing anniversary on Wednesday.