At least two British nationals are believed to have been killed when a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims was attacked by gunmen as it headed to religious sites south of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Baghdad. The dead and injured included four men and one woman who were brought to the Yarmouk Hospital in Iraq’s capital after their vehicle was ambushed at a checkpoint in the district of Dora.
The bus was taking pilgrims from Baghdad to the holy city of Kerbala.
"They have heard it could be two British nationals, but at this stage we know no more than that,” said one British spokesman, according to the Guardian.
The attacks comes shortly after the kidnapping of four humanitarian aid workers on Saturday, including one British national, one American citizen and two Canadians.
The British captive was reportedly British peace campaigner, Norman Kember.
According to the BBC, the four, including two Canadians and an American, were abducted from a relatively dangerous district in Baghdad and had “minimal" security. Up to 200 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq over the past year and a half.
In a separate incident in the Baghdad district of Albaya, a guard for one of Baghdad’s mayor’s was shot and killed on Monday, according to Reuters.
On Sunday, US patrol forces shot and killed a leader of the Shammar tribe in the town of Baiji after a roadside bomb exploded near the patrol on Sunday.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
