However, the Arabic-language TV network did not mention where the market is located in the city, home to 5 million people.

Baghdad has been under devastating bombings over the past nine days since the outbreak of the US-led war on Iraq on March 20.

Earlier in the day, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahaf accused the US-led coalition of using cluster bombs on Iraqi civilians.

A total of 26 Iraqis were killed and 60 others injured during the overnight bombings on the central city of Najaf, and seven were killed and 92 others injured overnight in Baghdad, Sahaf told reporters.

Some 116 people have been killed and 695 injured in the southern city of Basra since the beginning of the war, he said. And in the southern province of Thi Qar, 230 people have been killed and 800 injured.

Defying international opposition, the United States and Britain launched the war in a bid to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Iraq has denounced the invaders as "criminals" and "villains," while urging the international community to stop the "aggression" unconditionally.

(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2003)