BAGHDAD, March 4: Two women and a child on their way by foot to a holy city for a religious festival were among 12 people killed in a fresh flare-up of violence in Iraq on Sunday, officials said.

The women and the seven-year-old were hit by a roadside bomb as they walked from the city of Hilla, south of Baghdad, towards the shrine city of Karbala for religious ceremonies due on March 9, a security official said.

The official said Sunday's attack, around 90 kilometres south of Baghdad, was aimed at a passing US patrol but hit the pilgrims instead.

In another incident, a mortar which struck a police station and adjoining house in the northeastern town of Muqdadiyah killed two policemen and four members of a family, police said.

Other violence was focused in the capital, where two civilians were killed by bombs and an Iraqi police officer was shot dead, apparently the latest victims of sectarian violence ravaging Baghdad.

A security official said a civilian died and two were wounded in a bomb blast aimed at a police patrol in the southern district of Dura.

Another civilian was killed and four were wounded in a car bombing in the downtown Karrada area, the official said.—AFP