Baghdad - Three civilians were killed and 12 people wounded in an explosion late Wednesday in the Shiite-dominated city of Karbala, 110 km southwest of Baghdad, sources said.

Medical sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that two children and a woman were dead. Meanwhile, a police source told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency that the explosion took place only 1,000 metres from the mausoleum of Imam al-Hussein, grandson of the prophet Mohammad.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Interior Minister Abdel Qader al-Obeidy said Wednesday that Iraqi police and army forces will be ready to take over security for the entire country by the end of 2011.

"Yet, completing the enforcements of the Iraqi Army will not be finished before 2018," al-Obeidy told a press conference in Baghdad.

The Iraqi government and the United States are seeking to finalize a long-term security pact, which will govern the presence of US forces in the country after a United Nations mandate expires at the end of December.

Media reports said in August that the US and Iraq have agreed that US combat troops would leave entirely before the end of 2011. (dpa)