Iraqi looters die in ammunition dump blast

Several looters who broke into a former Iraqi army ammunition dump were killed today when they set off an accidental explosion, a spokesman for Polish-led peacekeepers said.

About “four to six” Iraqis died in the night-time blast in the desert about 180 kilometres south-west of Karbala, said Colonel Robert Strzelecki, revising an initial statement that about 20 had died.

“I suspect that those people who entered the bunkers probably wanted to steal the munition and sell it, perhaps to terrorist groups,” he said. “I think it was caused by human negligence.”

The sprawling array of ammunition bunkers, formerly used by Saddam Hussein’s army, contains heavy munitions such as artillery shells and rockets. It is guarded by Polish troops but is spread over a large area, making it hard to patrol, Strzelecki said.

Polish peacekeepers monitoring the area by ground radar saw the intruders entering the site but were unable to get to the location on time to stop them, Strzelecki said.

“When they were close, a great explosion occurred, and then a few smaller ones,” General Mieczyslaw Bieniek, the Polish-led contingent’s commander, told reporters at the force’s headquarters in Iraq, known as Camp Babylon.

He said it was too early to give a precise death count. “It’s a huge bunker, 150 metres wide and 200 metres long,” Bieniek said.

Strzelecki first reported about 20 deaths in the blast, but he revised the toll downward after experts reviewed the radar records.

Poland staunchly supported the US-led war in Iraq and commands a roughly 9,500-strong multinational force in the south-central region, including 2,400 Polish troops.