BAGHDAD, Feb. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Unknown gunmen kidnapped 11 Iranian Shiite pilgrims in north of Baghdad, killing one of them and their Iraqi driver, a police source said on Sunday.

    "Unknown armed men kidnapped 11 Iranian pilgrims with their Iraqi driver on Friday night near Samarra city, some 120 km north of Baghdad, after visiting the Imam Ali al-Hadi shrine," a police source from Tikrit told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    The gunmen released the three women within the group after the abduction.

    The women traveled to Tikrit, where they met the provincial governor of Salahudin, who reached the Iranian embassy in Baghdad to inform them about the incident.

    Maliha Abdul Wahab, 35 , told reporters in a short news briefing called by the governor that seven gunmen forced the pilgrims out of their vehicle and they killed the Iraqi driver and one of the pilgrims after a quarrel.

    Iraqi police and army patrols fanned out across the desert near Samarra searching for the kidnapped, the police source said. Enditem