According to police sources, the explosion happened on Wednesday night inside a house used as a depot for weapons and ammunition, which was destroyed along with three other homes, while a nearby Shiite mosque was damaged, as seen in epa images released Thursday. The officials said weapons were stored inside the mosque, which is frequented by supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric whose supporters once fought American troops in Iraq in the years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
At least 18 people are killed by twin explosions in a weapons depot in a mosque in Sadr City, Baghdad.