Suicide bomber kills 13 on Baghdad bus: police

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed 13 people and injured at least 18 others in an attack on a bus in Baghdad on Thursday, police said.

Few other details were immediately available but the attack came exactly a week before Iraqis go to the polls to elect their first full-term parliament since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Earlier police said two people died in the bombing.

Security forces are braced for a spike in violence ahead of the vote.

Two days ago, two suicide bombers killed at least 36 people at a police academy in the Iraqi capital in one of the worst attacks of its kind for weeks.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051208/ts_nm/iraq_blast_dc_2;_

and the preceding article posted 10 minutes earlier:

Analysts: Iraq Security Needs Improvement

WASHINGTON - While President Bush is predicting more prosperous days ahead for Iraq, analysts say that forecast won't come true until the chaotic security situation there improves.


"Until you can walk across the street without ducking, it will be hard to get the economy back," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York.

Bush, giving the second of a planned four speeches on his Iraq strategy, conceded Wednesday there had been setbacks in the reconstruction effort, saying it was hard to rebuild a country "when terrorists are trying to blow up that which the Iraqis are trying to build."

But Iraq experts said the president had not gone far enough in detailing the daunting challenges Iraq faces. Until authorities are able to get control of the violence, there will be little hope of mounting a sustained economic recovery, these analysts said.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051208/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_iraq_1;_

Early reports have a 12 Iraqis dead in the latest suicide attack in Baghdad.

In a bus headed to a Shi'ite city 200 miles to the South, Nasiriya, disaster hit.

In August, this same bus station was the scene of a triple car bomb.

Link:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10370662/

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber who jumped on a bus after security checks had been completed detonated an explosives belt among passengers heading to a Shiite city Thursday, killing up to 30 people and wounding nearly 40, officials said.