BAGHDAD, Iraq - Residents dug through the rubble of devastated buildings Monday in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad that was pounded by a barrage of rockets, bombs and mortars, killing at least 47 people and injuring dozens.

The missiles rained down on the Zafraniyah district in southern Baghdad Sunday night for more than an hour, as vehicles rigged with bombs exploded, residents said.

US soldiers inspect the damage, after Sunday night rocket attacks on a residential building, in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday Aug. 14, 2006. Car bombs and a rocket barrage struck a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad Sunday killing at least 62 people and injuring 140, a municipal official said Monday. The rockets were apparently fired from a mostly Sunni district targeted by US troops in a crackdown against the sectarian violence roiling the capital. [AP]

Officials said the rockets came from a mostly Sunni district, evidence that the sectarian violence roiling the capital shows no sign of stopping despite an additional 12,000 US and Iraqi troops rushing in to bring peace.

Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed Askari told reporters that the latest violence was a desperate attempt by terrorists who are being pushed into a corner by the new security crackdown.

"Terrorists are in a critical state because they realize the security plan is succeeding. So they have begun targeting innocent people anywhere and randomly," he said.

The office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in a statement that the attack started with a number of Katyusha rockets falling on a building Sunday evening followed by a car bomb, more rockets on a post office, a motorcycle bomb near a public library and mortar rounds near an Armenian church.

The statement said 47 people were killed and 100 injured. The head of a municipal council, Mohammed al-Rubaie, put the death toll at 62. The discrepancy could not be explained.

"The terrorists planned this ugly crime so that it would inflict maximum harm on innocent civilians, and this is proof of their deep-rooted hatred for Iraq and their attempt to incite sectarianism," al-Maliki said in another statement.

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