Saturday, September 24 2005 10:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: Six Iraqi civilians were killed and 10 wounded yesterday (Sept 23, 2005) in a bomb blast on a public bus in Baghdad as supporters and opponents of the draft constitution started in earnest to campaign ahead of the October 15 referendum.

Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was to issue a 'fatwa' or religious edict calling for a 'yes'vote in the constitutional referendum, an issue which has sharply divided Shiites and Sunni Arabs.

"A fatwa will be issued within the coming days to encourage people to vote 'yes', a source close to Sistanisaid in the holy Shiite city of Najaf.

Sistani, who rarely speaks in public, was one of the driving forces behind the January elections, the first free vote since the downfall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, which saw Iraq's majority Shiites and secular Kurds dominant parliament.

The deadly bus explosion occurred in Al-Tayaran square in central Baghdad, sending a plume of black smoke rising over the city, a day after US President George W Bush warned that Iraq should brace for more violence in the three weeks ahead of the referendum.

"A man left a bag in a minibus shortly after he had boarded. It exploded just after he left," a police officer said.

Shopkeeper Nadhem Hassan said he saw a man 'enter the bus and leave it very quickly', adding that he saw six burnt bodies in the vehicle.