Thursday, December 8 2005 15:10 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: A suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt in a bus, as it was about to depart for a Shiite city in the south, killing at least 12 people and wounding 27, police said.

Issa Abid Ali of the Kindi Hospital put the death toll in the attack at the Nahdaa bus station at 16 dead. Police and hospital figures often vary widely in such attacks.

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, 320 kilometres southeast of Baghdad, police Lt Ali Mitaab said.

The bus was gutted by flames. The attack occurred at the major bus station for vehicles headed to the mostly Shiite areas of the south.

Last August the staton ws 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.