The bike at the blast site. (AP)

Colombo, May 24 (AP): A flotilla of rebel boats launched a deadly raid early today on a navy camp in northern Sri Lanka, hours before a bomb exploded near an army bus in the capital killing one soldier and wounding six people.

The surge in violence came amid a deepening conflict between the government and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels that has shattered an internationally backed peace process and left at least 5,000 people dead in the past 18 months.

The Tamil Tigers attacked the small navy base in the village of Delft just after midnight, rebel and government officials said. The details of what happened, though, were sharply in dispute.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan said Tiger forces had killed 35 sailors and lost four of their own fighters. Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said four sailors had been killed, four wounded — and 18 Tigers killed.

The military and the rebels routinely deny and contradict each other’s casualty tolls, and nearly all battles occur in isolated parts of the island nation off-limits to journalists or other outsiders.

“The fighting lasted only 20 minutes and we completely overran the camp,” Ilanthirayan said by telephone. The rebel forces then fled the scene by boat, he said. “Our attacking unit counted 35 bodies during the time they were in (the camp) but had to come back quickly.”

Ilanthirayan said the rebels attacked in about 12 boats, and none were sunk. Samarasinghe said government naval forces sank two rebel boats, and air force planes sank two more.

Hours later in Colombo, a bomb exploded near a bus carrying soldiers.

The bomb, attached to a motorcycle parked in a crowded shopping area near the port, exploded as the bus went past, said Lanka defence ministry spokesman Lt Col Upali Rajapakse. Four soldiers and three civilians were wounded, he said. One soldier later died in hospital, he said.

“Soon after the explosion, the bus burst into flames, and then I brought the injured to the hospital,” said Chandana Mahanama, who was travelling in his car just behind the bus when the bomb went off.

Rajapakse blamed the rebels for the bus bombing, but Ilanthirayan denied they were involved.