A powerful land mine ripped through a packed bus in northern Sri Lanka on Thursday, killing at least 64 people in the worst act of violence since a 2002 cease-fire, the army said. Sri Lanka's air force responded by bombing rebel-held areas in the northeast.

Soldiers patrol near a bus overturned by a landmine blast in Kabithigollewa, about 210 kilometers (131 miles) northeast of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Thursday, June 15, 2006. Sri Lanka's air force bombed Tamil rebel-held areas in the northeast on Thursday, after a powerful mine blast ripped through a bus packed with commuters and school children, killing at least 62 people, the army said. [AP]

The government blamed the Tamil Tiger rebels for blowing up the bus -- crowded with commuters and schoolchildren -- but the rebels strongly denied responsibility.

Thursday's violence came during nearly a year of renewed fighting that began with last summer's assassination of Sri Lanka's foreign minister. With the cease-fire already shaky, the explosion has brought the fractured country even closer to full-scale war.

The explosion tore through a bus in a crowded part of the northern town of Kabithigollewa at around 8 a.m. It was believed to have been caused by a land mine packed with more than 20 pounds of explosives, military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said.

"The blasts hit the middle of the bus and it overturned, trapping passengers," said Bandula Seneviratne, a Sri Lankan photographer who was among the first to reach the scene, about 130 miles northeast of Colombo.

Hours later, the pro-rebel TamilNet Web site said two jets bombed areas in the north of the country, but it provided no other details. Samarasinghe confirmed the bombings, saying the air force was taking limited deterrent action.

Rebel commanders met quickly to map out their next move.

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