Dozens killed as bombs and rockets rain down on Shia suburb of Baghdad

Residents dug through the rubble of devastated buildings and swept bits of glass off the streets of a predominantly Shia neighbourhood of Baghdad devastated by a barrage of rockets, bombs and mortars.

The government said at least 47 people were killed and 100 injured. The missiles rained down on Zafraniyah in southern Baghdad on Sunday night for more than an hour, the chaos and shock heightened by explosions in vehicles rigged with bombs.

Officials said the rockets were fired from a mostly Sunni district, evidence that the sectarian violence rocking the capital shows no sign of stopping despite an additional 12,000 US and Iraqi troops moving to the area.

A Defence Ministry spokesman, Mohammed Askari, said that the latest violence was a desperate attempt by terrorists who were being pushed into a corner by the new security crackdown.

"Terrorists are in a critical state because they realise the security plan is succeeding. So they are targeting innocent people anywhere and randomly," he said.

The office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that the attack started with a number of Katyusha rockets falling on a building on Sunday evening followed by a car bomb, more rockets on a post office, a motorcycle bomb near a public library and mortar rounds near an Armenian church.

Mr Maliki said: "The terrorists planned this ugly crime so that it would inflict maximum harm on innocent civilians, and this is proof of their deep-rooted hatred for Iraq and their attempt to incite sectarianism." In Zafraniyah, massive slabs of concrete, which once were ceilings of a multi-storey apartment, lay on top each other in a collapsed heap as residents lifted blocks of rubble to look for people and belongings.

A middle-aged man in a bloodstained disdasha, the traditional Arab robe, wandered aimlessly around the destruction, hitting his face with his hands in grief. Residents said his six children were crushed to death when his house collapsed. "This is terrorism against the whole nation," said Ali al-Sayedi, a municipal council member.

A pedestrian bridge that was ripped off its mooring at one end had fallen at an angle to crush a car underneath. One rocket had punched a hole in the roof of a house, exposing the steel rod reinforcements inside. Store fronts were blasted inward, blowing away metal shutters.