AP: 14 Pilgrims Shot, Killed Near Baghdad

[Eugene]

14 Pilgrims Shot, Killed Near Baghdad

The Associated Press
Saturday, September 2, 2006; 4:29 AM

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Fourteen pilgrims from Pakistan and India were killed
on their way to the Shiite holy city of Karbala, police said Saturday.

The 14 _ 11 Pakistanis and three Indians _ were all shot on Friday
as they headed to Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, in a minivan,
said police Lt. Moahmmed Khayoun.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/02/AR2006090200232.html

[Missy M]

1. Why would anyone want to travel to Iraq and anywhere...

near Baghdad at this time? Why does anyone knowingly put their lives in danger? What a tragedy this is and so unnecessary.

[rodeodance]

2. I do not understand that either.

[deadparrot]

3. Asian pilgrims killed as Bush denies civil war in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Insurgents slaughtered 14 Shiite pilgrims from south Asia and more than 20 Iraqis, as US President George W. Bush insisted Iraq was not in the grip of civil war.

"Our commanders and diplomats on the ground believe that Iraq has not descended into a civil war," Bush said Saturday, a day after Pentagon warned the possibility of a civil war in Iraq had increased in recent months.

Suspected Sunni gunmen dragged a group of Pakistani and Indian travellers off a bus crossing the desert towards the Shiite holy city of Karbala and shot dead 11 Pakistani and three Indian men.

"They were coming in a big bus with children and women. The attackers freed the women and children and shot dead the men, execution-style," said interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdul Karim Khalaf.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/iraq

[MADem]

4. Awww, nothing to see here, move along...civil war? What civil war? NT

[angstlessk]

5. deadparrot, I was about admonish you to use the REAL headline..turns

out YOU DID use the REAL headline...I am truly amazed! A reality check for bushco...for sure!

[acmavm]

6. My only question is WHY were they on pilgrimage in Iraq? Of all places

to go, and regardless of the reason, why did they go to Iraq?

[varun]

7. Karbala is like the Vatican for the Shiites

so it is quite likely that pilgrims still go there.

[Turbineguy]

8. Just because Bush

doesn't know there's a civil war on is no reason to assume that everyone else does.