Nuri al-Maliki's failure to stabilize Iraq was underlined Tuesday as a car bomb ripped through a packed outdoor market in southwestern Baghdad, killing 25 people and injuring 60 others, police said.

The blast occurred about 10am in the Shia-dominated neighbourhood of Amil, damaging a medical centre, other buildings and vehicles, police said.

"There was a blast. It killed a large number of innocent people... poor people who worked to earn a living," one witness said.

Footage on Reuters Television showed cars and shops on fire and a huge crater in the centre of the street. Residents carrying buckets of water rushed to help firefighters douse the flames.

The neighborhood has seen an increase in violence in recent weeks. Sunni fears that this marks a resumption of sectarian cleansing by Shia militiamen.

Today's bombing came despite a three-month-old US and Iraqi security crackdown on sectarian violence.

US military officials said insurgent groups are feeling the pressure from the crackdown and have retaliated through deadly car bombings against civilians.

Earlier, in the nearby Khadra neighborhood, gunmen in two cars ambushed a civilian vehicle carrying three plainclothes police officers from the major crimes unit. Police said two were killed and the other was wounded.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi parliament was due to discuss several important issues today, including constitutional reform. Sunni politicians have long demanded changes to a constitution they say concedes too much power to the majority Shias and ethnic Kurds.

(China Daily via the Guardian May 23, 2007)