Gunmen ambushed a convoy carrying Shiite Muslim pilgrims home from Saudi Arabia in central Iraq today, killing at least nine people, a provincial governor said.

Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders today called for an end to Iraq’s sectarian conflict and vowed to track down those responsible for the war’s deadliest attack.

Revenge-seeking militiamen seized six Sunnis as they left prayers and burned them alive with kerosene in a savage new twist to the brutality shaking the Iraqi capital.