Bombs kill 5 and wound 26 in India's Assam

GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - At least five people were killed and 26 wounded when suspected separatist militants set off three bombs in the main city of India's troubled northeastern Assam state on Thursday, police said.

The first bomb was found in a dustbin in a heavily populated residential area of Guwahati, but went off at around 1.45 pm (0815 GMT) before a disposal squad could defuse it, police said.

Two other improvised explosive devices planted on bicycles exploded in the late afternoon, one of them near a crowded shopping mall, the other at a street market, police said.

"I saw two men come and park the bicycle here, and then they rushed away from the place," said a young woman who gave her name only as "Begum," who had been at the market.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Police pointed a finger at the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), the major separatist group in the oil- and tea-rich state often blamed for attacks. They said they had identified the suspects after receiving specific intelligence information.

"ULFA is behind this blast. We have inputs and we will very soon apprehend them (the suspects)," G.M. Srivastava, Assam's police chief, told reporters at one of the attack sites.

The blasts hit Guwahati before India's Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram arrived in the state for a security review on Thursday.

"There were security lapses. Our police force needs to be modernized and trained to deal with such terror attacks," Tarun Gogoi, the state's chief minister, told Reuters.

"The intelligence needs to be strengthened."

Friends and relatives of the victims thronged to the city's hospitals. Local TV showed crowds of people in the streets as ambulances rushed away the wounded.

The ULFA is among more than two dozen armed groups in India's northeast which are either fighting for an independent homeland or more political autonomy.

They accuse New Delhi of plundering the region's mineral and forest resources, neglecting the local economy and giving them back nothing in return.

In October, more than 80 people were killed when 11 bombs ripped through Assam. ULFA denied involvement and an Islamist group claimed responsibility.

But the coordinated attacks were blamed on Islamist militants from neighboring Bangladesh in league with separatists.

(Writing by Matthias Williams; editing by Philippa Fletcher)