BREAKING NEWS: Fire Breaks Out at U.S. Ammo Depot in Baghdad

Gestart door Lex, 11/10/2006 | 00:07 uur

Lex

Fire Breaks Out at U.S. Ammo Depot in Baghdad

Tuesday , October 10, 2006
AP

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A fire broke out at an ammunition depot at a U.S. base in southern Baghdad on Tuesday night, setting off a series of explosions, the U.S. military said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
It was not clear whether the depot was hit by an attack. The cause of the fire was not immediately known, said Lt. Col, Christopher C. Garver, a military spokesman.
Explosions from the ammunition detonating in the depot at Forward Operating Base Falcon went off for hours afterward, causing flashes on the horizon visible several kilometers (miles) away in central Baghdad, where the force of the blasts could be felt. The blasts came at time sporadically, at times in rapid succession, lasting into the night.
Helicopters were seen in the night sky flying over the area.
Authorities are "trying to determine the cause or any threat to the population," Garver said, adding that there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Falcon is located in a former commercial trucking depot in a sprawling industrial area at the southern entrance of Baghdad, near the violence-torn district of Dora, where U.S. troops have been focusing in a 2-month-old sweep of the capital neighborhood-by-neighborhood aimed at rooting out militants and weapons.