A thick plume of smoke rises in Baghdad, Jan.18, 2007. A car bomb attack in central Baghdad has killed at least 4 people and wounded 10, a security official said.((Xinhua Photo)   Photo Gallery>>>

Onlookers gather at the site of a car bomb explosion in central Baghdad. A wave of car bombs has rocked Baghdad, killing at least 17 people as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki urged Washington to better equip his army for a speedy foreign troop withdrawal from Iraq.(Xinhua Photo)   Photo Gallery>>>

    BAGHDAD, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Three car bombs detonated in a market in southern Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least five people and wounding 15 others, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

    "Three car bomb parking at the Alwat-al-Rashid vegetable market in Doura neighborhood detonated in quick succession at about 10:45 a.m. (0745 GMT)," the source said on condition of anonymity.

    "Our first report said that five were killed and 15 others wounded along with damaging several nearby shops," he added.

    Earlier, another car bomb went off near the Sindibad Cinama in Sadoun Street in central Baghdad, killing four people and wounding ten others, police said.

    The attack targeted a passing police patrol in the area, they said.

    A new wave of violence raged across the capital during the past 48 hours in the wake of an announcement by the Iraqi authorities and U.S. forces on Monday that they were going to carry out a new security plan in Baghdad to crack down on illegal militants from all sectors.

    A latest UN report said 34,452 Iraqi civilians were killed in the year of 2006.

    U.S. President George W. Bush has pledged to send additional 21,500 soldiers to beef up security in Iraq, most of them to Baghdad.