8 Held in connection with Anbar killings

Police have  arrested at least eight people  in connection with the murder of 22 Shiite Muslim pilgrims en route to Syria from a holy city in south Iraq, according to officials. Hussein Shadhan Al Aboudi, a member of Karbala provincial council, said local security forces travelled to Iraq’s western Anbar province on Thursday to arrest the suspects. The pilgrims were from holy Shiite city of Karbala, where news of the arrests was greeted by cheering crowds and celebratory gunfire. Karbala is 90 kilometres south of Baghdad. The pilgrims were headed to the Sayyida Zainab shrine in Damascus when gunmen in military uniforms stopped the bus at a fake security checkpoint and forced 22 men off the bus. The gunmen then took the pilgrims a short distance away and shot them, survivors said. The bus was one of the daily services departing from Karbala carrying Shiite pilgrims bound for Syria. On its way to Iraq’s western neighbour, it must pass through the desert region of Anbar. Anbar province is a long a stronghold of Sunni insurgents and Al Qaeda’s front group in Iraq. “Elite police from Karbala arrested eight suspects over the crime in Nukhaib,” said Nusaif Jassim Al Khitabi, deputy chief of Karbala provincial council, referring to the area where the attack took place. “They are still being held. They were all arrested in Anbar.” An official in Anbar’s provincial council, meanwhile, said 20 people, including two clerics, were detained and were all still being held. Al Qaeda operatives have killed numerous Iraqis and foreigners travelling the roads to Jordan and Syria. While tribal militias have cracked down on the insurgents since 2007, they have not completely eliminated them. Also on Thursday, Ahmed Abu Risha, whose brother founded the first Sunni tribal militia that joined forces with the US military against Al Qaeda, called on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki to hand over responsibility for security in Anbar to the militiamen, known as the Sahwa. He told Al Sharqiya television that Iraqi security forces could not handle security in the province, and the Sahwa should take over instead.