IRAQ:It was intended as a period of national reflection. A 15-minute pause at midday was held to mark the first anniversary of what many consider to be the spark that lit the fuse of Iraq's civil war.
The bombing of the golden-domed Askariya shrine in Samarra last February by suspected Sunni militants killed no one - but since that day, 33,849 Iraqi civilians have lost their lives in the ensuing violence. As Baghdad's clocks registered 12.20pm yesterday, Iraq's prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, appeared on state television to appeal for calm, for national unity and for an end to the violence that has devastated the country.
But even as he uttered his words, the broadcast pictures showed him blink and aides around him flinch with the force of an enormous explosion. The source of that blast was across the Tigris from the relative safety of the prime minister's compound in the Green Zone.
In the normally bustling Shorja market district, dozens of people lay dead, burned beyond recognition, while dozens more lay injured or dying.
By last night, the toll from the combined force of three car bombs stood at more than 85 dead, and almost 200 wounded.
On the ground, there was chaos.
Police said one car bomb had been parked near the entrance to a garage under a building that housed wholesale textile merchants. The blast set fire to hundreds of other parked vehicles.
Adding to the mayhem, a second car bomb then hit the nearby Haraj market. The immediate surroundings were devastated.
Dozens of shops and stalls were razed and a wall of thick, black smoke quickly blocked out the clear, blue sky.
In the immediate aftermath, witnesses reported having difficulty distinguishing the bodies from the clothing mannequins that lay among the bloody debris.
Rescuers used rolls of material to create makeshift stretchers and carry the dead and injured to ambulances, pick-up trucks, or whatever vehicles could be commandeered.
The emergency department at the nearby Kindi hospital was overwhelmed. Doctors reported scores of horrific burns. Police said those not killed by the initial blasts lost their lives in the ensuing inferno.
One witness, Wathiq Ibrahim, said: "I saw three bodies shredded apart. Paramedics were picking up body pieces and flesh from the pools of blood on the ground and placing them in small plastic bags. The smoke turned the place dark."
For Youssef Ahmed, a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War, the dense smoke rising above the Shorja district brought back memories of the torching of Kuwait's oil fields by the fleeing Iraqi army.
"I never thought I'd see sunlight eclipsed like that again," he said, standing about 50m (165ft) away from the burning building.
Ali Muhammad, a shop owner whose business was set on fire, killing two of his workers, said: "I have lost everything - my colleagues, my livelihood, and any hope that my country can survive."
The latest atrocity came a week after Mr Maliki had ordered thousands of police and troops on to the street as part of a joint Iraqi and US security plan.
Yesterday, both Iraqi and US soldiers had also taken to the streets, adding checkpoints across the city in a show of force aimed at stopping sectarian violence in Baghdad.
The US military is sending 21,000 additional troops to Iraq to assist in the crackdown.
Mr Maliki had hoped to use the anniversary of the attack on the ninth century Shia shrine in Samarra to appeal to Iraqis to unite to end the violence.
"We have a great confidence that Iraqis have realised that no one has a future in this country if we don't terminate the terrorists," he said after the 15 minutes of silence.
He was joined by Shia leaders and other politicians urging calm.
The pre-eminent Shia leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said in a statement: "We call on the believers as they mark this sad occasion and express their feelings . . . to exercise maximum levels of restraint and not to do or say anything which would harm our Sunni brothers who are innocent for what happened and who do not accept it."
Yesterday, Iraqi president Jalal Talabani called the bombing of the shrine "a crime against humanity and Islam together".
"This horrible crime drives us to toward more solidarity and brotherhood," he said in a speech in Baghdad.
"We will stay with you until we accomplish a secured, democratic, federal and stable Iraq away from the darkness of terrorism, dictatorship."
By nightfall yesterday, the fires were still burning in Shorja. Firefighters said that many bodies could still remain in the rubble of the destroyed buildings .
"Watching this, I think it is like being in hell. Where is Mr Maliki? Will he visit this place?" said a bystander who gave his name only as Muhammad.