The smoke had cleared Thursday from the scene of devastation in the Sadriyah market -- site of the deadliest single bomb attack of the Iraq war -- but the grief and anger was still raw.
In a Baghdad street leading away from the wreckage of a row of shops and buses devastated in a blast that killed at least 140 people on Wednesday, an old man sat slumped, sobbing openly among a circle of his friends.
The insurgents who carried out the savage attack, and several more around the city that pushed Wednesday's death toll above 190, intended to destroy public confidence in a joint US and Iraqi security operation.
In Sadriyah, on Thursday, they appeared to have succeeded for now.
"Where were the police, the army, the Maghaweer (task force)? Didn't they see the vehicle passing through their checkpoints?" demanded 65-year-old Abu Adnan furiously as he came to inspect the crater.
"Where is the government? Where is the security plan?" he raged, while bystanders crowded to see the three metre (yard) wide and two metre deep hole ripped out of the black tarmac by the force of the car bomb.
In nearby Al-Kifa street, relatives were nailing up black banners with the names of their dead, a familiar ritual in Baghdad since the city's descent into a three-way battle between Sunni and Shiite factions and security forces.
Just over two months ago Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced operation "Fardh al-Qanoon" (Imposing Law), an ambitious plan to restore order to the capital by systematically retaking neighbourhoods.
Maliki's plan was backed up by a "surge" in US forces -- an extra 28,000 American troops sent to join 130,000 already in the country despite increasing public disillusionment with the conduct of the war.
US commanders described the operation as a bid to quell sectarian violence and give Maliki's government time and space to train up its security forces while at the same time pursuing a programme of national reconciliation.
The operation scored some initial successes. Shiite leaders gave it public support, while their hardline militias melted away and radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr disappeared from view -- allegedly to hide out in Iraq.
Sectarian murders by Baghdad death squads dropped off slightly, but Sunni insurgent bombers were not deterred, unleashing a deadly spate of attacks that now threaten to undermine Shiite public support for the plan.
In the immediate aftermath of Wednesday's blast, this was evident.
"The police and the army can only create a traffic jam near the checkpoint. They do not distinguish between one car and another," said 28-year-old Imad Basim, who runs a glazier's shop near the blast site.
"How could anyone bring a car bomb to this place? What were those innocents guilty of?" he demanded. "Where is the government and its security plan?"
Nearby, a passerby called out warning bystanders not to approach the crater, for fear there might still be unexploded munitions. Three men were inspecting a row of burnt out cars and buses, looking for human remains.
"This car belongs to Abu Ahmed, may God have mercy on him," said Saad Kamil, an unemployed 32-year-old helping out with the clean-up.
"This one could belong to Mohammed Abu Risha," a friend added, pointing to another wreck. "We did not find his body".
Kamil shared the bitterness of many in the crowd, saying: "The army and the police claim security has been restored but keep silent when cars explode."
US spokesman Rear Admiral Mark Fox admitted the military's task was tough, but said the situation was not getting worse: "It is very clear that it is a violent response from people who want the Baghdad security plan to fail."
"There is frustration ... but we are not seeing a degradation."
Maliki himself shared some of his citizens' anger by ordering the arrest of the chief of the local Iraqi army regiment as Sadriyah was bombed for the second time in just over two months.
One of his men still guarding streets, 29-year-old Muhanned Abdul-Wahid, said there was little the troops could have done.
"The terrorists managed to smuggle the car bomb down a very narrow avenue after failing to get through military checkpoints," he said, pointing towards Fadhel, a nearby district and notorious insurgent stronghold.
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