BAGHDAD, Nov 11: Nine people plus the bomber died, many burnt alive, when a car bomb exploded in a Baghdad traffic jam on Thursday as attacks across Sunni areas of central and northern Iraq wounded more than 80.

The bloodshed came despite frantic attempts by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to maintain order in Sunni towns enraged by a three-day-old offensive by US troops on Fallujah.

Curfews on seven cities in or near the Sunni belt reinforced a state of emergency across most of the country.

In Baghdad, flames raged around one vehicle with four children trapped inside after a car bomb ripped through a line of vehicles in the capital's main shopping street at the peak of the morning rush hour, police and medics said.

"It is a car bomb in Saadun street," Major Mohammed Fuad, from the Saadun police station, said.

"It happened on the crossroads of Nassar Square where there was a major traffic jam. More than 10 cars are burning and many of them have people still inside."

Shop fronts were totally destroyed and one car dangled perilously from the roof of a five-storey building where it was thrown by the force of the blast.

Wounded civilians, many with their arms or legs broken, lay in the street awaiting ambulances, which had to battle through the heavy traffic that typically clogs the roads of central Baghdad.

"We were driving very slowly because of the traffic jam and a car in front suddenly blew up," recalled Hussein Ali, still stuttering from shock.

Doctors at three nearby hospitals said they had received nine dead and 25 wounded. Witnesses said the bomber also died.-AFP