AFGHANISTAN - Oct 2 - Suicide Bomber Kills At Least 12 In Kabul Bus Attack.

A suicide bomber approaches a bus carrying police officers and civilian employees of the Interior Ministry and blows himself up, killing at least 12 people, including at least one child, officials and witnesses said. The bombing, coming at the beginning of rush hour in western Kabul, was the second suicide attack in four days against a bus carrying Afghan security forces. The Taliban took responsibility for the attack, according to Reuters, which quoted an unnamed Taliban spokesman. On Sept 29, the insurgency also took responsibility for a suicide attack on a bus in the capital packed with Afghan Army soldiers, which killed at least 30 people, including 28 soldiers and two civilians. Ahmad Zia Yaftoli, the medical chief of the Afghan military, said in a telephone interview that the attack Tuesday had occurred on the western outskirts of the city when the bus stopped to pick up ministry employees to take them to work. A man wearing a large Afghan shawl approached the bus, but the driver did not recognise him and told him he was forbidden to board, Yaftoli said. The man tried to force himself onto the bus, but as the conductor pulled a pistol on him, the man blew himself up, the official said. The explosion blew out the roof of the bus, peeled off its sides and sprayed the street with blood and body parts. The victims included six police officers, five ministry employees and a child, Yaftoli said. Ten people were wounded, including four police officers who were in comas, he added. Ahmad Saqi, a 20-year-old mechanic, told The Associated Press that he had helped to carry seven people to rescue vehicles and that several of those victims were missing legs. He said he saw at least four dead children. "One woman was holding a baby in her arms, and they were both killed", Saqi told The AP.