Explosions at ammunition warehouse kill one and injure 29 in South Baghdad

A series of explosions at a warehouse storing weapons and ammunition killed one person and injured 29 people in South Baghdad on Monday.

کد خبر: ۹۱۷۷۳۱

تاریخ: ۲۲ مرداد ۱۳۹۸ - ۰۹:۲۴

The blasts occurred after a fire in a munitions storage site run by Iraq’s powerful Popular Mobilisation Forces, an umbrella group of militias mainly aligned with Iran.

The fire ignited several rockets which struck neighbourhoods several miles away and injuring mainly children, said Qasim al-Attabi, a spokesman for the district's health directorate.

Health Ministry spokesman Saif Badr said most of the wounded were discharged from area hospitals with light wounds.

A police source told Reuters that the fire was probably caused by negligence leading to poor storage conditions and high temperatures. The Interior Ministry ordered an investigation.

The Iraqi Health Ministry on Monday said seven of those wounded were admitted to Yarmouk hospital and six to Mahmudiya.

The explosions began at about 7pm local time in the Abu Dshir area, south of Baghdad.

Videos showed massive clouds of smoke over the area, with several blasts heard.

Iraqi Civil Defence rushed to the scene. It was not immediately known what caused the explosions.

Iraqi officials earlier said it was an attack on a federal police military base but several outlets - including Sky News Arabia and Al Arabiya - confirmed it was a PMF warehouse.

A regional source suggested to The National the Kataib Hezbollah and Kataeb Sayyed Al Shuhada militias may have had weapons stored at the location.

Both units are aligned with the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and are part of the forces.

Last month, according to Shraq Awsat newspaper, Israeli planes attacked Iranian targets in Iraq twice near Baghdad. One attack targeted a PMF and Iranian rocket storage facility northeast of Baghdad, while a second one struck Camp Ashraf, northeast of Baghdad.