Bomb Attacks in Bombay Kill at Least 142

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed solidarity. "There is no political cause that can justify the murder of innocent people. The United States stands with India in the war against terror," Rice said. "Those responsible for these terrible acts should be swiftly brought to justice."

The FBI said Tuesday after the bombings that it saw "no specific or credible threat to the U.S. mass transportation system." Noting the Madrid transit bombings of March 2004, the London bombings of July 2005 and the recent disclosure of a potential plot against the New York City transportation system, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security "are assessing what has occurred in India," the statement said.

In 1993, more than a dozen bombs exploded in Bombay, killing 257 people and injuring hundreds. In 2002, another round of bombs killed 53 people and injured more than 150.

Both those attacks were blamed on indigenous Islamic terrorists and followed large-scale sectarian violence between the Hindu and Muslim communities. Indian investigators have also been looking into a possible link between those blasts and a wider ring of Islamic terrorism around the world.

India has often accused Pakistan of training and supporting Muslim radicals, especially in the Kashmir region, a charge Pakistan has denied. In 2001 India blamed Pakistan for an armed attack on Parliament in New Delhi and the two nuclear-armed neighbors came to the brink of war. They have since initiated a peace process aimed at resolving their competing claims over Kashmir.

Kashmir has been split between India and Pakistan since shortly after the two countries won independence from Britain in 1947, but both still claim it in full. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since the subcontinent was partitioned after independence, two of those over Kashmir.

On Tuesday, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the Bombay attacks and it president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, offered condolences for the loss of life, the Associated Press reported.

Staff writers Robin Wright and Spencer S. Hsu in Washington contributed to this report.