BAGHDAD, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Five Iranian pilgrims and an Iraqi driver were killed and 15 other Iranian pilgrims wounded on Monday in a bus accident in Iraq's eastern province of Wasit, the provincial government said in a statement.
The accident occurred earlier in the day when a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims overturned on the main road between the town of Gassan, near the Iranian-Iraqi border, and the town of al-Daboni, north of the provincial capital Kut, some 180 km southwest of Baghdad, according to the statement published on the Facebook page of the provincial government.
Thousands of Iranian pilgrims are heading to the holy Shiite city of Karbala, some 110 km south of Baghdad, to commemorate the Arbaeen religious ritual.
Arbaeen is the end of 40 days of mourning for Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, who was killed at the battle of Karbala in 680 A.D. ■
