BAGHDAD, April 18: An avalanche of car bomb attacks in five districts of Baghdad killed 172 people on Wednesday and delivered a savage blow to the credibility of a two-month-old US security plan.

The series of blasts was the deadliest in the Iraqi capital since the launch of the massive crackdown; the single most devastating blast alone killed 122 people, mainly commuters and shoppers.

The bombings ripped through five districts of the sprawling capital, where 80,000 Iraqi and US troops are straining to enforce order and contain the daily violence terrorising Baghdad’s five million residents.

In the bloodiest attack, a parked car exploded on a principal intersection and in a busy market area in the downtown district of Al-Sadriyah, scattering charred corpses among a row of burnt-out buses.

After a deafening blast that sent a dense cloud of putrid black smoke spewing into the sky, a fire incinerated human flesh, cars and vehicles as rescue workers converged through the streets.

Fire-fighters doused nearby cars and buses, as dozens of ambulances and pick-up trucks ferried the wounded to hospital and civilian volunteers wrapped charred bodies in carpets for transport to the city’s overflowing morgues.

Angry Iraqis who lost loved ones lashed out at Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, blaming his beleaguered government for failing to bring law and order to the streets of the capital, nearly a year after it took office.

“Down with Maliki! Where is the security plan? We are not protected by this plan,” they shouted.—AFP