Arms depot explodes on Iraqi-Syrian border

A security source in the northern Iraqi governorate of Nineveh has confirmed on Thursday that an explosion took place in a weapons depot on the Iraqi-Syrian border.

The source explained that the arms depot belongs to the Iraqi border guard forces, clarifying that it exploded because of the high temperatures.

Earlier on Thursday, a security source reported that a strong explosion was heard on the Iraqi-Syrian border, west of Mosul, adding that two of the border guard forces were injured.

In August 2022, seven people were killed in an explosion of a weapons depot in Najaf city in central Iraq, about 160 kilometers south of Baghdad.

Iraqi weapons depots spread remarkably within residential areas after 2003. With the beginning of each summer, people start to fear the possible explosion of these depots because of the high temperatures that turn them into time bombs that may take their lives.

Between the summers of 2016 and 2018, Iraq witnessed the explosion of three weapons depots in the southern and eastern parts of the capital, Baghdad.

The last of which was the explosion of a warehouse in Sadr City, a suburb district of the city of Baghdad, killing ten people, wounding 90 others, damaging private and public properties, and destroying an elementary school close to the scene of the explosion.

In 2019, five Iraqi weapons warehouses exploded in different parts of the country, as well as in the summer of 2020. In July 2021, a weapons depot belonging to the Imam Ali Division of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) exploded in Najaf governorate.