At least 16 people, including three women and two children, were killed in a fresh sectarian clash in Pakistan's northwest, officials said.

Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim tribes have been engaged in intermittent fighting for several months in the Kurram district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Kurram, formerly a semi-autonomous area, has a history of bloody confrontations between tribes belonging to the Sunni and Shi'ite sects of Islam that have claimed hundreds of lives over the years.

A convoy of Sunnis was travelling under the protection of paramilitary soldiers on Saturday when they came under attack.

"As a result, 14 people, including 3 women and 2 children, were killed, and six others were wounded," a local official said.

Frontier police responded and killed two of the attackers, who were identified as Shi'ites, the official added.

Other recent clashes in July and September killed dozens of people and ended only after a jirga, or tribal council, called a ceasefire.

Officials are attempting to broker a fresh truce.

Tribal and family feuds are common in Pakistan.

However, they can be particularly protracted and violent in remote areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where communities abide by traditional tribal honour codes.

The Shi'ite community in Pakistan, a predominantly Sunni Muslim country, has long suffered discrimination and violence. (AFP)