Arab TV networks showed footage of blood-spattered corpses and wailing women beating themselves in grief. A morgue worker pulled open a drawer with two small bodies, a lifeless boy nestled in the legs of a lifeless girl.

"Most of the victims are women, children and old people," Dr. Harqi Razzuqi, head of An-Nur hospital in the Iraqi capital, told AFP. He said many of the wounded were in serious condition.

One man writhed in pain as doctors worked furiously to close a gash that had split open part of his arm. Some of the survivors howled as they waited for treatment.

The Iraqi information ministry said a large number of civilians had been killed and injured but gave no figures, while US officials have regularly blamed Iraq for civilian casualties.

The incident comes amid what Iraq says are mounting civilian deaths from the US-led war to topple President Saddam Hussein, which has seen coalition warplanes batter Baghdad with waves of giant bombs and cruise missiles.

Dr. Razzuqi said the strike had hit the An-Nasser market, close to the hospital, on what was the second weekly Muslim day of rest since the US and British war was launched on March 20.

US officials have accused Saddam of placing military targets in residential neighbourhoods, and said the missiles that slammed into a Baghdad apartment complex on Wednesday, killing at least 14, may have come from Iraq.

Iraqi anti-aircraft gunners have regularly opened fire during bombardments by the US and British war planes, and it is not known if their shooting may have knocked missiles off course.

Earlier Friday, anti-aircraft gunners shot down an unmanned US spy plane which then slammed into the roof of a Baghdad house. It was unclear if any casualties had resulted from the incident.

But the images of the latest deaths, splashed on the Arabic-language satellite networks, which have offered groundbreaking coverage of the war, will be certain to enflame anti-US sentiment that is already close to boiling.

A leading Iraqi imam, holding a rifle as he led weekly prayers on Friday, called on Muslims and Arabs worldwide to launch a "jihad" or holy war to protest the US-led onslaught against Iraq.

"Failing to join the jihad would be disobeying the orders of God," Abdul Ghaffur al-Qaissi said.

The Iraqi capital, seat of Saddam's 24-year grip on power, has been pummelled by coalition air strikes since the war began.

US officers and officials said Friday that at least 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles as well as several massive 1,000-pound (500-kilo) bombs had been dropped on the city in the previous 24 hours.

The United States has come under intense criticism over the war, which has intensified as coalition troops have faced fierce resistance from Iraqi troops in the south of the country.

Washington and London say Saddam and his inner circle will be ousted from power by war's end, and the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, insisted Friday the US war plan was "brilliant."

"There are branches and sequels to everything that might happen, but the plan is sound, it is being executed and it's on track," Myers said.

US President George W. Bush "believes that ... we are making very good progress in the war, it is on track, and he is very satisfied with the results," his spokesman, Ari Fleischer, told reporters.

WAR.WIRE