Govt dispatches officials to Iraqi city following reports of gun attacks on Pakistanis

Foreign Office says they have not yet been able to confirm if Pakistani pilgrims were killed in Wednesday's gun attack

ISLAMABAD/ BAQUBA: The Pakistan foreign office on Wednesday said that it was looking into reports that some Pakistani pilgrims in Iraq had become victims to violence in the troubled country.

A statement from the foreign office on Wednesday said that the Pakistani mission in Iraq had not yet been able to confirm the deaths of Pakistanis in Iraq.

“Our Mission has been assured that details of the incident and names of the victims would be confirmed as soon as available.”

The statement added that the Pakistani embassy in Baghdad was in contact with hospitals to verify the names of the dead and injured.

“Embassy officials have been sent to Samarra to provide, on the spot assistance, to the pilgrims.”

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that gunmen had opened fire on a bus apparently carrying Pakistani pilgrims traveling from Samarra to Baghdad. The attack killed three people and wounded 11 others, police and medical sources said.

Iraq violence continues

In what has been one of the deadliest years for Iraq after US troops pulled out in 2010, saw at least ten people die from bomb and gun attacks in different parts of Iraq.

On Wednesday, an Iraqi policeman gave his own life in an attempt to protect pilgrims, embracing a suicide bomber just moments before an attack to shield others from the blast.

The bomber struck in Khales, northeast of Baghdad, killing five pilgrims and wounding 10, a police colonel and a doctor said.

The toll would almost certainly have been higher were it not for the selfless actions of the policeman, whom the colonel said threw his arms around the bomber, dying to save others.

The police hero was named as Ayyub Khalaf, 34, who was married and had two children, aged six and nine.

Two in Baghdad province killed at least eight pilgrims on Tuesday, and two car bombings took the lives of at least 24 on Monday.

The United Nations envoy to Iraq issued a statement on Wednesday sharply criticising attacks on pilgrims.

"Such terrorist acts are particularly despicable and unjustifiable, all the more so since practising religious duties is revered in all various faiths," Nickolay Mladenov said in the statement.

Also on Wednesday, a roadside bomb in the northern city of Mosul killed two people and wounded two others, and gunmen killed two soldiers and wounded two in an attack on a checkpoint, officials said.

Violence has reached a level this year not seen since 2008, when Iraq was just emerging from a period of brutal sectarian killings.

More people were killed in the first eight days of this month than in all of December last year.

And more than 6,550 people have been killed since the beginning of 2013, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.