An arms dump exploded in Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 12 Iraqis, sending rockets scything into nearby houses and causing residents to turn their wrath on American forces.
In towns, villages and cities in Iraq it was unclear who was in charge in the chaos following removal of Saddam Hussein and his loyalists from power in the three-week US-led war.
The US military said unknown attackers fired an incendiary into an Iraqi munitions store at Zaafaraniya on the capital's southern outskirts, triggering a series of blasts. But local people turned their anger on the Americans, shooting at soldiers trying to help relief efforts and forcing them back from the scene for a while.
Residents said US troops had packed cars with confiscated weapons and detonated them at the site. The Americans denied this and said the location of the dump near a residential area showed Saddam's disregard for civilians.
Anti-American protests broke out later in the capital and the incident seemed sure to fuel mounting opposition to a continued US military occupation of Iraq. It was unclear how many people were killed in the blasts in Zaafaraniya, a mixed residential-industrial suburb.
The main hospital in the district said at least 12 people had been killed and 40 injured, but medics said more casualties were ferried to other hospitals. US Central Command in Qatar said at least six people had died.
One Iraqi medic on the scene said the blasts had killed many people. Asked how many, he replied: "Forty." One distraught man, Tamir Kalaal, said his wife, father, brother and 11 other relatives had been killed when a rocket shot out of the arms dump and destroyed their home.