Iskandiriyah (Iraq), Feb. 13 : Thirty-two Shiite pilgrims were blown up by a woman suicide bomber on Friday in the southern town of Iskandiriyah.

Agency reports said that women and children were among those killed. Sixty-five people were also injured in the incident, officials said.

Police said that the town falls in Iraq''s Babil province and added that the suicide bomber had hidden her explosives under an abaya, the traditional Muslim head-to-toe black garment for women.

She blew herself up among a crowd of women and children just after mid-day Iraq time.

It was the third straight day of killings that have targeted Shiites heading to Karbala.

Friday''s attack came a day after eight worshippers were killed and more than 50 wounded in a bomb attack near Karbala''s revered Imam Hussein shrine.

A blast 11 months ago near the shrine left 43 dead. (ANI)