HAMMAD SHEHAB, Aug 18: Twelve former Iraqi soldiers were killed when an ammunition dump they were looting in a village near Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit blew up, locals said on Monday.

“Twelve people were killed in the explosion and they were all unemployed men who had been officers in the army,” said Kazem Hassan, 32, a former tank regiment sergeant now living in the village of Hammad Shehab, some 175 kilometres north of Baghdad.

While the US military confirmed the incident, placing the first of two explosions at 8:30 pm (1630 GMT) on Sunday, it said only one body had been discovered in the ashes.

“A team of investigators recovered the remains of one unidentified body,” said Colonel Bill MacDonald, spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division, which controls northern Iraq.

He added that no US troops or equipment were lost in the explosion.

US troops kept the Iraqi police and firefighters away from the scene until 11:00 am (0700 GMT) on Monday once the fires and chain-reaction ammunition explosions had subsided, Col MacDonald said.

Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite channel said the men had broken into the dump to loot copper from artillery and other shells which they would then resell.

“The men here are unemployed and the Americans shoot at them when they go near the dump but they go anyway because they need money,” said villager Milad Ali Hussein.

MacDonald said the site was a former arms dump of deposed ruler Saddam’s military. It is now being used as a store for weapons and ammunition confiscated from suspected Iraqi resistance fighters.—AFP