A bomb blast blamed on separatist Tamil Tigers wounded 45 people in Sri Lanka’s capital today.

Scattered gunbattles and a roadside bomb blast in Sri Lanka’s embattled north killed 17 Tamil separatists and three soldiers in two days of violence, the military said today.

Nine suspects have been arrested in a bus bombing that killed 26 passengers outside Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, police said today as air force jets pounded positions of the Tamil rebels blamed for the attack.

Twelve Tamil rebels and five Sri Lankan sailors were killed today in a clash near a western naval base, a navy spokesman said – the latest violence threatening to cause a four-year ceasefire to completely collapse.