Massive arms dump blasts hit US base in Iraq

8.30am

KIRKUK - Massive explosions rocked a major United States military base outside Kirkuk on Wednesday, shrouding the northern Iraqi city in smoke, after what police called a rocket strike on an arms store.

Shells and rockets screamed into the night sky over the base at the main airport for the oil hub.

The initial blast was followed by sirens on the base and mayhem that was still going on nearly two hours later.

"You can see rockets flying and landing all over the base," reporter Adnan Hadi said from a vantage point 500 metres from the base's perimeter.

"The windows of buildings close to the base have all been shattered," he said.

Loudspeaker announcements could be heard on the base warning troops to stay under cover.

District police chief Borhan Taeb Taheb said: "A Katyusha rocket hit an arms store."

Taheb said he knew of no casualties among civilians outside the base, which covers a wide area.

A US military spokesman said there had been an "incident", but had no further details.

No ambulances or firefighting vehicles were seen moving in Kirkuk, which was under curfew.

Mortar and rocket attacks on US bases are an almost daily occurrence across Iraq.

Kirkuk, 250 km north of Baghdad, is the industrial centre of Iraq's northern oilfields and home to US troops forming part of Task Force Danger under the command of the 1st Infantry Division.

Violence has erupted in the area in the past few months, notably between rival communities of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq