Iraq: Pilgrims killed in bus attack

Two Britons were killed and three injured today when gunmen attacked a bus carrying Muslim pilgrims south of Baghdad, police and hospital officials said.

Gunmen attacked the bus when it neared a checkpoint in the Dora neighbourhood, said police Capt. Talib Thamir.

The bus was carrying Shiite Muslim pilgrims to religious sites south of the capital, he said.

Four men and one woman, apparently of South Asian heritage and carrying United Kingdom passports, were taken to Baghdad's Yarmouk hospital, an official there said.

Also this morning, a mortar shell fell in central Baghdad’s Green Zone, just hours before Saddam Hussein’s trial was set to begin. There were no reports of injuries from the shell, which was fired from Dora, said police Lt. Bilal Ali Majeed.

A roadside bomb also detonated next to a passing US Army convoy in north-eastern Baghdad, setting fire to a Bradley fighting vehicle. Police Capt. Mohammed Abdul-Ghani said three soldiers were injured.