Militants launch series of explosions in northern India

GAUHATI, India -- Suspected separatist militants launched a series of coordinated bombings Wednesday in India's remote northeastern state of Assam, killing a policeman, wounding six people and blowing up a gas pipeline, police said.

At least eight bombs exploded in various areas of Assam, including three explosions in the state capital, Gauhati, a police officer said on condition of anonymity.

A bomb planted in a busy market in western Bongaigaon district exploded as a policeman tried to defuse it, killing him and wounding at least one other policeman.

Suspected militants blew up part of a gas pipeline in eastern Assam, causing a fire, but engineers shut off the gas flow.

Three explosions -- one outside a police station, another near a hospital and a third near Gauhati airport-- rocked the state capital, injuring two people, the police officer said.

The blast near the airport damaged a portion of the facility's outer wall, an airport police spokesman said.

Suspected rebels triggered three explosions under power transmission towers in eastern Sivasagar district, but failed to do much damage, said Bhaskar Mahanta, a senior police official in Sivasagar.

Three people were wounded in another blast in Sonapur town, just outside Gauhati, the police control room in the state capital said.

No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, but police suspect the United Liberation Front of Asom, or ULFA, one of the dozens of separatist groups that have been fighting Indian security forces in the region for decades.

The group has been fighting security forces for the independence of Assam from India since 1979.

In December, ULFA rejected an invitation by India's federal government for peace talks, saying the offer did not mention its main demand for sovereignty. The war over Assam has claimed at least 10,000 lives, mostly civilians, in the past 15 years.