The pilgrims came under fire inside the bus at 11:00 p.m. local time as they were moving toward Baghdad. The pilgrims were from Mashhad, northeast of Iran.

Qasr-Shirin governor Bahram Teimouri told the Mehr News Agency that the injured pilgrims are under treatment in a hospital in the Iraqi city of Khanaqin. Teimouri said the injured are in stable condition.

The bust was just 40 kilometers away from the Khosravi border point that assailants attacked it, the governor said.

Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization deputy director Hossein Akbari said the caravan sent to Iraq had been organized by travel agencies acting outside the supervision of the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization.