Six Killed in Blast at Munitions Dump

At least six people who were trying to loot an ammunitions dump in southwestern Iraq were killed Sunday when the ordnance exploded, a Polish military official said.

“Attackers entered the bunker and the bunker exploded,” said Lt. Col. Robert Strzelecki, a spokesman for the multinational force in southern Iraq. “They wanted to loot and steal ammunition from the bunker.”

He said no coalition soldiers were injured. The identity of the looters was not known.

The explosion happened about 6:30 a.m. at a bunker about 110 miles southwest of the town of Karbala.

Large amounts of weapons and unused ammunition have been found in Iraq by the U.S. military and its coalition partners. Officials say it is impossible to guard all the arms depots.

Meanwhile Sunday, Britain’s Ministry of Defense reported that a British soldier had died in an engineering accident in southern Iraq.

Sapper Robert Thomson, 22, of the 35 Engineer Regiment, died Saturday, the ministry said. It gave no details of the accident.

“Our thoughts are very much with his family at this difficult time,” the ministry said.

Thomson was the 58th British soldier to die in Iraq.

Southern Iraq is controlled by soldiers from Britain, Poland, Spain and a host of other nations. Over the weekend, Denmark’s prime minister made an unannounced visit to Danish troops in Iraq, who number 410.