Suicide bomber kills 10 in Baghdad

Baghdad: A suicide car bomber killed 10 people in Baghdad on Thursday, a day after militants killed almost 200 in the capital's bloodiest day since the 2003 US-led invasion, despite a security crackdown.

War-weary Iraqis vented their anger at the Baghdad security plan which has cut sectarian murders blamed on Shi'ite militias but failed to stop car bombings and other large-scale attacks blamed on Al Qaida.

Police said a bomber rammed his car into a fuel tanker in the religiously-mixed neighbourhood of Jadriya on Thursday, also wounding 21 people. Black smoke billowed into the sky as flames engulfed the car and the tanker, television footage showed.

Suspected Sunni Al Qaida militants detonated a string of bombs in mostly Shi'ite areas of Baghdad on Wednesday, the worst day of violence in the city since the last-ditch plan to stop Iraq sliding into civil war was launched in February.

In the worst attack, 140 people were killed in a truck bombing in the Sadriya neighbourhood.

In Sadriya, angry residents cursed the Shi'ite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki for failing to protect them. Smoke still billowed from the debris and sandals and glass littered the ground in Sadriya.

"The government is talking about the security plan but
dozens of people are dying every day. No one is protecting us," Sabah Haider, 42, told Reuters as he stood beside a dozen incinerated minibuses.

Rahim Ali, also in Sadriya, said: "The Americans say they
are here to protect the Iraqi people but they are doing
nothing".