Updates toll, adds US patrol details (first version was published at 15:45)
At least eight people were killed and 12 injured in a bomb attack on a small bus in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, security sources said, dpa reported.
The bomb, which was attached to the bus, went off around 100 metres away from a US military patrol, the source added.
Police cordoned off the area around the blast.
It was the first major attack since the beginning of the year in oil-rich city of Basra, the country's second-largest city, located about 550 kilometres south-east of Baghdad.