5 Iranians killed in Iraq
Gunmen have shot dead five Iranian pilgrims, including a woman, in an attack on a minibus near the restive Iraqi city of Baquba yesterday, police said.
"At least five people were killed in an attack by armed men against three buses carrying Iranian pilgrims in the Nabi Wais region," a police official at the provincial security command centre said.
He said the five victims were among about 30 pilgrims travelling on minibuses in the area northeast of Baquba, the capital of the province of Diyala north of the Iraqi capital.
The attack came a day after 21 people were killed in a wave of attacks across Iraq on Tuesday, one of the bloodiest days since US forces pulled out of towns and cities across the country on June 30.
Shiite faithful, including Iranians, have often been the target of attack during religious ceremonies in Iraq and pilgrimages to holy Muslim sites.
Despite the violence, hundreds of thousands of Iranians travel to Iraq every year to visit Shiite shrines since the Sunni-led regime of Saddam Hussein was toppled in the US-led invasion of 2003.
In April, 56 people were killed in a suicide bombing on a restaurant packed with Iranian pilgrims in Muqdadiyah, north of Baquba in Diyala province, which remains one of the most dangerous areas of the country.
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