UNITED NATIONS, April 19 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed "outrage" on Thursday at the killing of nearly 200 civilians in Baghdad in deadly bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital.

    "The secretary-general expresses his outrage at the callousness and scale with which innocent civilians are being slaughtered on an almost daily basis in Iraq. Another deadly bomb attack registered today only underscores his concern," said a statement issued by his spokesperson.

    The UN chief also expressed his solidarity with the Iraqi people and appealed to all communities of Iraq to show maximum restraint, it said.

    "He calls urgently on the political and religious leaders of Iraq to come together in a spirit of dialogue and mutual respect in order to find a way out of this destructive spiral of violence," it added.