Attackers fired flares at an American ammunition dump on Baghdad's outskirts early Saturday, setting off powerful explosions that killed at least nine people, including three babies. Local residents said one U.S. soldier was injured.
The ammunition was stored in the open, in a large field surrounded by high walls in the Zafaraniyah neighborhood in southeast Baghdad.
Earlier, local residents said at least five Iraqis were killed in a huge explosion at an arms dump near Baghdad on Saturday, one neighbour who was wounded in the blast told Reuters.
"I woke up and went to have breakfast," the injured man, who gave his name only as Mohammed, said at Zaafaraniya, on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital.
"There was a huge explosion next to our house. Fires started all around. Explosions ripped through the neighbourhood. In the next house, four women and a child were burned to death. "It is a big mess."
A CNN correspondent at the scene quoted residents as saying 14 people may have been killed when a missile destroyed a house. Sky News reported up to 40 Iraqi civilians have been killed and many badly wounded.
Angry residents fired on U.S. troops trying to treat the injured and recover bodies from the rubble, driving American forces from the area.
Command Sgt. Maj. Gary Coker told Associated Press Television News that he saw six bodies recovered and his men were about to dig out three babies when they had to pull back under fire.
(Albawaba.com)
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