Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers ambushed an army bus killing nine soldiers in the island's restive north today hours after killing four village policemen, the military said.
The attacks were the latest in a spree of ambushes blamed on the rebels amid a new chapter in a two decade civil war.
"A Claymore (mine) exploded targeting a bus carrying troops from Mannar to Vavuniya," a spokesman at the Media Centre for National Security said. "It was definitely the Tigers." He said 15 people, including seven civilians, were wounded in the attack.
The town of Vavuniya is the last major staging post before the southern front line that separates government from rebel-held territory in the north while Mannar is in the northwest.
Hours earlier suspected rebels killed four police in the same district.
Those killings in turn came on the heels of a rash of land and sea clashes, ambushes and air raids that have killed an estimated 4,500 people since last year alone.
The Tigers were not immediately available for comment, but routinely deny involvement in ambushes on the security forces - denials analysts dismiss.
Evicted from swathes of the east by military offensives in recent months, the Tigers have vowed to switch to guerrilla tactic mode to strike major economic and military targets in a bid to cripple the island's economy.
They say peace is impossible with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has vowed to wrest control of all rebel-held territory. Analysts say that sets the stage for a bloody fight for the north, where fighting is now focused.
Nearly 70,000 people have been killed since 1983, and analysts see no clear winner on the horizon.