At least 16 people, including three children, were killed and 25 wounded when a bomb ripped through a crowded bus in eastern Sri Lanka Monday.
The defence ministry immediately accused Tamil Tiger rebels of setting off the parcel bomb attack, which coincided with a key Buddhist holiday, while the guerrillas denied they were responsible for the attack.
Passengers were getting off the vehicle to be checked by troops manning a road block when the blast occurred outside the town of Ampara, 350 kilometres (220 miles) east of the capital Colombo, a local police officer said.
"The bomb went off just at the Kondawattuwan check point," the police officer said. "We now believe that the blast was aboard the bus. It was most likely a parcel bomb."
The head of the main hospital there, Lankathilaka Jayasinghe, said three people were already dead when they were brought in on a day when many people were taking advantage of the week-long holiday.
"Three people were dead on admission and 13 others died in hospital," Jayasinghe said, adding that 25 more people were being treated for injuries. Three children and 11 women, including a woman soldier, were among the dead.
Two off-duty constables travelling home for the traditional New Year next week, were also among those killed, police said.
The Tigers denied involvement in the attack, the second against civilian transport since the rebels were accused of setting off bombs inside buses and killing 17 and wounding 117 on two consecutive days in January.
"We have nothing to do with this blast," spokeswoman for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Navaruban Selvy said by telephone from the rebel head office in Kilinochchi, in the island's north.
Her remarks came after the defence ministry said the attack was the work of Tiger rebels, who have been held responsible for similar blasts in the past.
"The security forces suspect that the bomb would have been placed inside the bus by the LTTE to deliberately target civilians," the defence ministry said in a statement.
The blast came as President Mahinda Rajapakse visited neighbouring India to attend a two-day South Asian summit opening in New Delhi Tuesday. Officials said he wanted to discuss the threat of terrorism at the summit.
The latest bloodshed also came as security forces tightened their grip on areas held by the LTTE, with elite police commandos making advances into jungle territory dominated by the guerrillas in the region.
Sri Lankan jets and helicopter gunships carried out night-time bombing raids against Tiger rebel positions over the weekend.
However, defence officials had said that the guerrillas still had the ability to stage hit-and-run attacks.
The government has vowed to drive out Tamil Tigers from the sprawling Eastern Province, where the guerrillas maintain strongholds deep inside jungles.
In other violence, six civilians were shot dead in Batticaloa, just north of Ampara, on Sunday night and the military and the Tigers blamed each other for the massacre.
Another four civilians were gunned down on Sunday night in the north of the island. The Tiger rebels accused a breakaway faction allied with government forces of carrying out the attacks.
The Tamil rebels have waged a 35-year campaign for independence that has claimed more than 60,000 lives in Sri Lanka.
More than 4,000 people have been killed in the latest upsurge of fighting that began in December 2005 despite a truce arranged in 2002.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070402/wl_asia_afp/srilankaunrest_070402112111;_
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