Sri Lankan Terror Attacks Kill 21

Separate explosions inside two passenger buses killed 21 people, authorities said Saturday. Officials blamed the Tamil Tiger rebels, but the group denied any involvement.

Fifteen people died and dozens were wounded after a bomb tore through a bus in Meetiyagoda on Saturday, some 60 miles south of the capital. Police said the blast could have been triggered by a suicide bomber.

"There is a female body inside the bus and looking at the damage the blast has caused around her, we suspect that she could have been a suicide bomber," said Upul Ariyaratne, a senior police official.

Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for a separate homeland for ethnic minority Tamils in Sri Lanka are known for deploying suicide bombers in their campaign against the state.

Ariyaratne said there were about 65 passengers inside the bus at the time of the blast and about 40 had been admitted to hospital.

The insurgents, however, rejected the military's accusations that they carried out both bus bombings.

"We totally deny that. We did not do that, that's all I can say," Rasiah Ilanthirayan, the rebels' military spokesman, told The Associated Press by telephone from the rebel stronghold Kilinochchi.

A similar blast Friday evening killed six other passengers on a busy highway in Nittambuwa, 25 miles northeast of Colombo, and 30 passengers were wounded.

The government's military spokesman, Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe, said 10 people had been detained for questioning regarding Friday's bus blast. No formal charges had been lodged, but they were still being questioned, he said.

The bus explosions came days after the rebels warned the government of "serious repercussions" for an air force bombing that they say killed 16 ethnic Tamil civilians, including eight children. The military said it targeted only rebel positions in the airstrike Tuesday.

Sri Lanka has recently experienced a sharp rise in violence; more than 3,600 fighters and civilians were killed in renewed fighting in 2006, according to Defense Ministry.

A Norwegian-brokered 2002 cease-fire between the rebels and the government has come under serious threat as more than 3,600 fighters and civilians were killed in renewed fighting in 2006. The cease-fire still officially holds.

Before the cease-fire, the conflict claimed the lives of about 65,000 people and displaced another 1.6 million.