BAGHDAD, 9 December 2005 — 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 yesterday, killing up to 30 people and wounding nearly 40. Separately, kidnappers of an American security consultant said they had killed him after their demands were not met by Washington.

About the bus bomb, police said most of those killed were on the bus, which was gutted by flames, but several people gathered around a nearby food stall were also killed.

Police said the attacker waited until the bus was slowly pulling away from the station, then jumped on board to avoid security checks. They said the death toll was high because the blast triggered secondary explosions in gas cylinders stored at the food stall.

Fire swept through the bus, trapping passengers who had been headed to Nasiriyah, 320 km southeast of Baghdad, for the weekend. Charred corpses were left in the seats, their faces staring out through the shattered windows. Police climbed over the top of the vehicle inspecting what remained of luggage.

Several other explosions rumbled through the heart of the capital yesterday morning, including one that struck an American convoy killing a US soldier, the military said. The latest death raised the number of US service members who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003 to at least 2,131, according to an Associated Press count.

A statement signed by an insurgent group said in an Internet posting that it had killed the kidnapped US security consultant, Ronald Schulz, 40. The statement did not identify the hostage and provided no pictures, video or other evidence he had been killed. It said pictures of the slaying would be released later. The US Embassy said it had no information to confirm the claim.

It was the first time in more than a year that an insurgent group announced the slaying of an American hostage.

The Islamic Army in Iraq said it had killed “the American security consultant for the Housing Ministry,” after the United States failed to respond to its demand of the release of Iraqi prisoners.

A video issued by the group was broadcast Tuesday on Al-Jazeera television showing the hostage — an industrial electrician from Alaska — sitting with his hands tied behind his back. The group blamed President Bush for failing to respond to its demands.

Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein’s lawyers reported threats by three people at Baghdad airport. The men threatened Saddam’s chief lawyer as he boarded a plane from Baghdad to Jordan yesterday, and they were removed from the flight, the Iraqi lawyer and his colleague, ex-US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, said. The lawyer, Khalil Dulaimi, did not explain how the men threatened him, but said that he believed that one of them was an Iraqi security official.

“I saw three miserable people, one of them was daring airport security and some of the officers there,” Dulaimi told reporters after arriving at Amman’s international airport.

“It seemed he was a man backed (by influential people) and affiliated with one of the security apparatus,” he said. “I asked airport security to check his identity and they did. His name is with us. I believe he sought to assassinate me, or assassinate the defense team.”

“We appeal for intervention from the United Nations to ensure a fair and honest trial, considering this miserable security situation,” he said.

Clark, who is participating in Saddam’s defense team in the ousted Iraqi leader’s trial on mass murder charges, said, “There were three people that threatened him (Dulaimi) directly and they were planning to board the plane ... The security people removed them.”

Clark said other lawyers also received threats in the Baghdad courtroom during the three sessions of Saddam’s trial that were held this week. “There were threats even at the court, on the balcony, there were three people making threats during the trial. I didn’t personally receive any threat, or see anyone follow me.”

During this week’s proceedings, the judge ordered the removal of one man from the visitors’ gallery for making threatening gestures toward the defense.