Death toll of Ukraine's bus attack rises to 12

The death toll of an attack on a passenger bus in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday afternoon has risen to 12, a police official said Wednesday.

Vyacheslav Abroskin, the head of the Interior Ministry department in Donetsk region, wrote on his Facebook page that a man and a woman have died in a hospital after treatment of their life-threatening injuries failed.

The rest 16 wounded people are still receiving medical care in local hospitals.

A total of 28 civilians were in the bus, which came under heavy shelling around 2:30 p.m. local time (1230 GMT) Tuesday at a checkpoint fortified by Ukrainian forces near Volnovakha town in Donetsk region.

The Ukrainian government and independence-seeking insurgents traded accusations over the incident, which became the largest single loss of life so far this year in eastern Ukraine conflict.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the rebel forces shelled the bus with Grad rocket-launchers, while insurgent leadership denied their involvement, claiming that the incident was a "provocation by Kiev, which could undermine peace process".

On Sept. 5, 2014, a ceasefire protocol was signed in the Belarusian capital of Minsk between representatives from Kiev and the rebel leadership in an attempt to end the bloody confrontation, but the agreement has never been fully implemented.

According to Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko, over the past day, one Ukrainian soldier was killed and 17 other wounded in the conflict that has claimed over 4,700 lives since mid-April. Endi