Suicide Bomber Kills Iranian Pilgrims in Iraq

At least nine killed

(Reuters) - A suicide bomber rammed his car into a bus carrying Iranian Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims in Iraq on Friday, killing at least nine people in an attack likely carried out by Sunni Muslim insurgents trying to ignite sectarian conflict.

Al Qaeda's local wing and other Sunni insurgents have been on the offensive since the start of the year in an attempt - spurred in part by the mainly Sunni rebellion in neighboring Syria - to provoke the kind of Shi'ite-Sunni bloodshed that killed thousands in Iraq in 2006-2007.