BAGHDAD, Jan 23: A UN envoy said on Tuesday Iraq was sliding “into the abyss of sectarianism” and urged Iraqi political and religious leaders to halt the violence after two car bombs in a Baghdad market killed 100 people.

Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed the car bombs on followers of Saddam Hussein, whose botched execution last month angered many among his fellow minority Sunni Arabs.

The US military said Iraqi and US troops were taking a “balanced approach” in attacking Shia and Sunni Arab militant groups -- apparently responding to charges by the once dominant Sunnis that Maliki's government has failed to crack down on Shia militias loyal to some of his political allies.

Some 600 members of radical young Shia cleric Moqtada al -Sadr's Mehdi Army are in custody, the military said.

Cracking down on Shia militias, US commanders say, is new and is key to a planned new security operation in Baghdad, backed by close to 20,000 American reinforcements.

A US military statement said that in the past 45 days, 52 raids had targeted the Mehdi Army, and 42 were focused on Sunni Arab insurgents. It did not say when the 600 Mehdi Army members who are awaiting prosecution were detained.

Monday's blasts killed at least 88 and wounded 160 at a second-hand goods market in Bab al-Sharji, a busy commercial area that is home to both Sunni Arab and Shi'ite shopowners and traders in central Baghdad.

U.N. envoy Ashraf Qazi condemned the attacks and called on politicians and religious leaders to stop the violence and “save the country from sliding futher into the abyss of sectarianism”.

“These deplorable outrages again underscore the urgent need for all Iraqis to reject violence and together choose the path of peace and reconciliation,” Qazi said in a statement.

—Reuters