BAGHDAD, Feb 21: At least 21 people were killed when a car bomb ripped through a market here on Tuesday as visiting British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw appealed for Iraqi unity.

The powerful explosion, also wounding 27, devastated the Abu Dshir general market in the Dura area as people went about their nightly shopping, police said.

Dura, a mixed Shia-Sunni community, has been convulsed by sectarian unrest in the last year and the attack came as Mr Straw pressed Iraq to form a government that would ‘bind’ the violence-wracked country together.

Mr Straw, who arrived on Monday, held separate meetings with Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, President Jalal Talabani and Vice- President Adel Abdel Mahdi before flying home.

During his visit, Mr Straw strongly defended his troops, currently engulfed in an abuse scandal in Iraq over video footage showing British soldiers beating four Iraqi youths during a riot in Amara. Mr Straw vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The four young Iraqis who said they were beaten by the soldiers are seeking damages after bringing a civil complaint before a local court, their lawyer said.

Three people have been arrested so far by London.

The latest deaths brought to 30 the number of people killed on Tuesday in violence across Iraq.

Those dead included three Iraqi security officials killed by bombings in Baghdad; three Iraqi soldiers, one of them a women, shot dead in Kirkuk; two civilians shot dead in a taxi near Baquba; and one truck driver killed in the northern town of Baiji.—AFP