Survivors of Iraq Bus Bombing Arrive in Beirut

An Iraqi plane landed Sunday at the Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport carrying Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who had survived a roadside bombing against their bus in Iraq.

The survivors include nine who were wounded in the attack, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

A roadside bomb exploded near the bus in a Sunni area of western Iraq on Wednesday, killing three women and wounding 10 other passengers, Iraqi police and medical sources said.

"A roadside bomb exploded in the Khamsat Kilo area as a bus carrying Lebanese pilgrims... passed on the highway, killing three of them and wounding 10," a first lieutenant in the Anbar provincial police said, referring to an area west of the provincial capital Ramadi.

A lieutenant colonel in the Ramadi police said there were around 40 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims on the bus, among them women and children, who were headed to Shiite holy sites.

Al-Jadeed television has reported that the bus belongs to the Shams al-Doha campaign, which was organized by Abdullah Nader.

Iraq is home to some of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam, to which hundreds of thousands of pilgrims flock each year. Pilgrims are periodically attacked, often by bombs.