KARBALA, Dec 24: Iraqi police arrested two of their own officers who confessed to killing 14 Pakistani pilgrims earlier this year, a spokesman for the force acknowledged here on Sunday.

The Pakistanis, travelling across the Iraqi desert to the shrine city of Karbala, were dragged off their bus on Sept 2 and shot dead. A civilian spokesman for the Iraqi police in Karbala, Rahman Mushawi, said two officers posted in a small town west of the city, Shalal Mukhimit and Sami Abu Al-Hil, had been arrested.

“They confessed their responsibility in this killing,” he said. The Pakistanis appear to have been victims in the sectarian war which has divided Iraqis.

The insurgent group Ansar al-Sunna had claimed responsibility for the murders three weeks after they took place.—Agencies