At least five explosions ripped through the Zafaraniyah district in south eastern Baghdad, in an attack which witnesses say blitzed the al-Qubyasi market, a mixed area inhabited by Shi'ites, Sunni and Christians.
"There's children, women, whole families were killed," said an official, who works at the interior ministry's security control room.
The attacks began when a Katyusha rocket demolished a four-storey building containing residences and shops.
Then, five minutes later, as people were dragging out the dead and helping the wounded, a car bomb detonated about 100 metres away, shattering shop fronts and scattering wounded people across the street.
An unnamed medical official at the scene told news agency AFP that bodies were trapped in the remains of the building.
"There are dozens of bodies in the street. The building just collapsed. It was four storeys, with homes and shops. Civil defence personnel are trying to get bodies out of the building. The shops underneath are destroyed," he said.
Less than an hour later another bomb attack brought down a second building nearby and once again when local people gathered at the site, a suicide bomber on a motorbike ploughed into the crowd.
A fifth bomb targeted a police patrol on its way to the scene, injuring three officers.
Dog bomb
Meanwhile, an insurgent group claims to have attacked US forces near the capital by setting off explosives attached to a dog.
Video posted on the internet, by the group, appeared to show a dog sitting on the side of a road as a military vehicle approached, moments before a large explosion occurred.
Iraq's Jihadi Factions claimed responsibility for the blast which was reportedly carried out in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad. The group did not give a date for the attack.
Dead dogs stuffed with explosives have been used against US troops in Iraq. It was not clear from the video whether the animal was alive or dead.
Neighbourhood security
A call for neighbourhoods to provide their own security personnel, by a Shi’ite leader, has again cast doubt on the ability of US and Iraqi forces to end the violence in country.
Hadi al- Amiri, who is both a member of parliament and head of a Shi'ite militia group, said such security committees were essential because Iraqi forces lacked training and were not ready to tackle militants and insurgents.
Amiri, whose Badr Organisation militia has been accused by Sunni Arab leaders of running death squads, a claim denied by the group, said the committees could offer a way of improving security.
"Our forces are not complete to take on this wide terrorism." he said in a recorded debate broadcast on state television.
Under the plan, Shi'ites would protect their neighbourhoods and Sunnis guard their own, while joint patrols would take charge in mixed areas.
But it has drawn criticism from other politicians, including Haidar al-Mulla, a representative of the Sunni Iraqi National Dialogue Party, said that the committees just amounted to militias.
"We think that the case of popular committees is a manoeuvre around a law on dissolving militias," he said.