A suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt in a bus as it was about to depart yesterday for a Shiite city in the south, killing up to 30 people and wounding nearly 40, police and hospital officials said.
Most of the dead were in the bus, which was gutted by flames, and the rest were gathered around a food stall nearby, police said at the scene. Kindi hospital said at least 37 were injured.
Police said the attacker waited until the bus was pulling away slowly from the station, then jumped on board to avoid security checks. Police said the death toll was especially high because the blast triggered secondary explosions in gas cylinders stored at the food stall.
PHOTO: AP
The blast occurred a week before national elections, and officials had warned of a surge in violence ahead of the balloting. Several other explosions rumbled through the heart of the capital yesterday morning.
Witnesses told police that the attacker left a car and climbed onto the bus and blew himself up as the bus was about to leave for Nasiriyah, 320km southeast of Baghdad, police Lieutenant Ali Mitaab said.
Fire swept through the bus following the blast, trapping passengers. Their charred corpses remained in their seats, their faces starring out through the shattered windows. Police climbed over the top of the vehicle inspecting what remained of luggage.
"As the bus was going outside the station, a man carrying a bag tried to get into the bus, but the conductor was suspicious about him," police Lieutenant Wisam Hakim said. "He tried to stop him but the man insisted. He sat in the middle of the bus and then the explosion took place."
The attack occurred at the major bus station for vehicles headed to the mostly Shiite areas of the south.
Last August the station was the scene of a horrific triple car bombing which killed at least 43 people and wounded 89. The latest attack occurred two days after two suicide bombers struck at the city's police academy, killing 43 police and cadets.
British appeal
Meanwhile, Britain issued a fresh appeal yesterday for the kidnappers of four foreign Christian peace campaigners in Iraq, including a British citizen, to come forward and make contact.
"As I have said before, if the kidnappers want to get in touch with us, we want to hear what they have to say. We have people in Iraq and the region and they are ready to hear from the kidnappers," Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said.
Straw made the appeal after the kidnappers of Briton Norman Kember, 74, Canadians James Loney, 41 and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, and US national Tom Fox, 54, extended by 48 hours to tomorrow their deadline to kill them.
"Norman Kember and his colleagues are campaigners for peace, dedicated to help others. We ask for their release," said Straw, who issued an initial appeal on Wednesday for the kidnappers to make contact.
"We remain in close touch with Mrs Kember and it is hard to imagine the terrible distress that Mr Kember's family are suffering throughout this ordeal. Our thoughts and our prayers are with them," he said.
"The message of this latest statement is not clear. If the kidnappers want to get in touch, we want to hear what they have to say," he said.
Al-Jazeera last Friday showed a video of the four hostages and said it had received a statement from the kidnappers threatening to kill them unless all detainees in Iraqi and coalition prisons were released by yesterday.
It gave those it called "the people concerned with abductees affairs" until yesterday to meet its demands or said it would kill the four.
The statement was accompanied by a video showing the two Canadian hostages being offered food.
They and the British hostage were also shown calling for an end to the US and British military presence in Iraq.
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