BAGHDAD (AP):

A suicide car bomber struck a busy Baghdad commercial district yesterday, killing at least 21 people, setting cars on fire and damaging a nearby Sunni shrine, police and hospital officials said.

The blast went off at 2:00 p.m. (1200 GMT) in the Sinak market area on the east side of the Tigris River, just as United States and Iranian diplomats were wrapping up a historic meeting aimed at ending the violence wracking the country.

Insurgents carried out several mortar and car bombing attacks throughout the capital yesterday and even waged a lengthy gun battle with police in broad daylight. The wave of violence, which killed 36 people across Baghdad, came despite a nearly 15-week-old U.S.-led security crackdown in the city.

Another 33 bullet-riddled bodies were found handcuffed, blind-folded and showing signs of torture in different parts of Baghdad, the apparent victims of ongoing sectarian violence.

Deadliest attack

The deadliest attack yesterday was the car bombing in the Sinak district, near theal-Gailani mosque Abdul-Qadir .

AP Television News footage showed dozens of astonished people wandering among the scorched cars and debris that littered the scene.

Firefighters in yellow helmets struggled to extinguish the fire as ambulances rushed to evacuate the wounded.

Ghaith Karim, a 38-year old Shiite cloth merchant, was heading to a nearby bus station when he saw a fire ball and heard the blast.

"It was tremendous. I felt the ground was shaking," he said. "When I reached the scene, I found legs, charred pieces of bodies and pools of blood. Casualties were being evacuated by civilian cars."

The television footage showed damage to the mosque's minaret, while the cleric in charge of the Sunni shrine, Mahmoud al-Issawi, said the blast damaged the building's dome as well.

"The enemies of Iraq are the only ones who benefit from this bombing. These enemies have targeted our homeland, religion and our brotherhood," al-Issawi told Iraqiya TV.