Resistance fighters hit an ammunition dump on a U.S. base in Baghdad with a mortar round, setting off fiery explosions through the night that shook buildings miles away, while renewed attacks killed at least 14 people, primarily in the capital.
The mortar round set fire to an ammunition holding area, where material is kept temporarily before distribution to the units at Falcon. He said more than three battalions were stationed there at the time of the attack but he would not give a specific number of troops.
Firefighters and hazardous material experts continued Wednesday to put out the blaze, while engineers and explosive ordinance specialists were to begin the clearance of unexploded ordinance. Falcon is located in a former commercial trucking depot in a sprawling industrial area at the southern entrance of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, the corpses of seven people were turned in to the morgue in the southern city of Kut, according to the AP. Among the 14 overall dead in attacks, five people were killed in three separate car bombings in Baghdad, while gunmen also shot and killed a policeman in the capital. Another policeman was shot dead in the northern city of Kirkuk, while a civilian died in a roadside bombing on a highway in the north.
In other incidents, three U.S. Marines and two troops died in fighting in Iraq, the U.S. command said Wednesday. The Marines died Monday from enemy action in Iraq's western Anbar province, the military said in a statement.
Also Monday, a U.S. soldier was killed when his patrol was attacked by insurgents in an eastern part of Baghdad, the military said. The second soldier, attached to the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, died of wounds from an explosion during a vehicle patrol Sunday north of the city of Tikrit.
