HOLY CITY OF KARBALA, Iraq: Thousands of Iraqis attended funeral of fourteen Pakistani and Indian pilgrims in the holy city of Kerbala, south of Baghdad, September 2, who were abducted and martyred in Iraq's western desert, police said on Saturday.

According to details a group of 11 Pakistani and three Indian pilgrims and their Iraqi driver were ambushed in a minibus heading through western Iraq from Syria.

Lieutenant Mohammed Khayoun said the group were on their way to Karbala, 80km south of Baghdad.

Iraqi security forces rushed to the scene and ambulances evacuated the casualties to the main hospital of Karbala, said an Interior Ministry source.

A spokesman at the Al-Hussein hospital in Karbala, where the bodies were taken, said the five women and nine men had their hands bound and had been shot in the head.

An official, citing a report from the hospital's mortuary, said: "They were killed three days ago. Some were tortured. One body had been beheaded."