HOLY KARBALA, Iraq: The remains of women and children, victims of Saddam's ousted regime, have been found in a mass grave dug up by workers who were laying down pipes in the holy city of Karbala, a local official said.

The workers called the police, who cordoned off the area. Clothing found with the bodies indicated that they included men, women and children.

"The remains of dozens of victims were found in the pit - some 500 meters from the mausoleum of Imam Hussein (A.S.)," Abdul Rahman Meshawi, a Karbala police spokesman, told news agency AFP on Tuesday. "The skulls of children and women with long hair were found in the grave."

A 50-year-old local man, Salman Saadoun, said he remembered seeing bulldozers digging in the area after Saddam's elite Republican Guard entered the town to crush the intifadah Sha’baniah in 1991. A small public park was later built there.

Tens of thousands of Mo’minin across the south were imprisoned, tortured and martyred.

The holy shrines in Karbala and Najaf were smashed by the tanks and artillery of government forces.