Sri Lanka's air force bombed areas around the headquarters of Tamil Tiger rebels for a second night on Friday as victims of a suspected rebel civilian bus ambush were buried in a mass grave.
Jets raided areas near the de facto rebel capital Kilinochchi at first light, but attacks then ceased apparently while the funerals of the 64 people killed in Thursday's attack were held. Witnesses said bombing resumed at nightfall.
"The bombers came back," said a Kilinochchi security guard who did not give his name. "They bombed away from the town."
An aid worker in a bunker in the northern town also said he had heard bombing and the rebels reported being shelled by the army near the north-eastern port of Trincomalee.
The air strikes were the heaviest since a 2002 cease-fire halted a two-decade long war which killed more than 64,000 people. The attack on the packed bus in a remote area near rebel territory was also the worst since the truce.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) deny the attack on the bus and say the bombing is unjustified, but diplomats and analysts say they are by far the most likely suspects.
Almost 700 people have been killed so far this year, with a drastic increase since early April. The rebels have pulled out of peace talks, accusing the government of killing minority Tamil civilians and using renegade ex-rebels to attack them.
As the white-draped coffins were buried in Kabitigollewa, a north-central Sri Lanka village near where the bus was bombed, angry relatives and neighbours from the island's Sinhalese majority vented anger at the government and the rebels.
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