Gunmen killed a local police chief and another officer early yesterday in Iraq, and thousands of Shiite Muslims began leaving the holy city of Karbala after sleeping on the city streets because they feared traveling at night after a string of attacks on pilgrims.
Gunmen killed Balad Ruz police chief Colonel Hatim Rashid as he was visiting a police station in the city, said Colonel Mudhafar al-Jubouri, a provincial police official. A police officer was also killed and another was injured in the attack, 50km northeast of Baghdad.
In Karbala, bus stations were packed with pilgrims departing after a Shiite religious holiday marking the end of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and one of Shiites' most important saints.
Fighters from the Sunni Muslim-led insurgency staged several deadly attacks on Shiite pilgrims in the days leading up to religious festival. Policemen in Karbala could be seen on building rooftops or patrolling the city streets as security measures remained in place.
On Thursday, a suicide car bomber blew himself up near an Islamic shrine in Tuz Khormato, 89km south of Kirkuk, killing five Iraqis in the latest attack on Shiite Muslims. Sixteen people were wounded, hospital officials said.
Ukraine and Italy also announced timelines to pull troops from Iraq later this year, further dwindling the number of US-led coalition forces.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said his country's troops will leave Iraq by year's end. Ukraine had already said it would begin pulling out its 1,650 soldiers, the fifth-largest contingent in the coalition, but had not set a timetable for completing the withdrawal.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi also said he plans to trim his contingent of troops at the end of September by about 300 soldiers from his current force of 3,300.
The troop reduction announcements came as US forces have intensified programs to train more troops in the Iraqi Army and police force, hoping to stabilize the country with native forces.
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