Gunmen ambush Shi'ite pilgrims in Iraq, kill five

BAGHDAD, July 14 (Reuters) Gunmen sprayed a minibus with machinegun fire southeast of Baghdad today, killing five Shi'ite pilgrims, including a woman and a child, police said.

Captain Mohammed al-Shimari of Kut police said the pilgrims had been travelling to the holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala when gunmen attacked them on the outskirts of Kut.

The killings come amid a surge in sectarian violence between majority Shi'ites and once-dominant minority Sunnis that has renewed fears that Iraq is moving closer to all-out civil war.

Shi'ite pilgrims travelling to the holy cities of Kerbala and Najaf have been frequent targets in the violence.

Earlier today a bomb struck a Sunni mosque in Baghdad after Friday prayers, killing seven people and wounding five, while mortar rounds hit a Shi'ite mosque north of the capital, killing two and wounding four, police said.

REUTERS PKS HT1934