- KIRKUK (Reuters) -- Massive
explosions have rocked a major United States military base outside the
northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk, shrouding the city in smoke, after what
police said was a rocket strike on an arms store.
-
- Shells and rockets screamed into the night sky over the
base at Kirkuk's main airport and thick smoke rolled across the whole area,
a Reuters reporter said from the scene.
-
- The initial blast was followed by sirens on the base
and mayhem that was continuing an hour later.
-
- "You can see rockets flying and landing all over
the base," reporter Adnan Hadi said.
-
- "The windows of buildings close to the base have
all been shattered."
-
- US military spokesmen in Baghdad said they were unaware
of the incident. US officials in Kirkuk could not be reached.
-
- "A Katyusha rocket hit an arms store," district
police chief Borhan Taeb Taheb told Reuters.
-
- Mr Taheb said he knew of no casualties among civilians
outside the base which covers a very wide area.
-
- No ambulance or fire trucks were seen moving in the city,
which was under curfew.
-
- Kirkuk, 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, is the industrial
hub of Iraq's vital northern oilfields.
-
- There has been considerable violence there in recent
months, notably between rival communities of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen.
-
- http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1121776.htm
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