Скачать или смотреть Explosions heard in Kufa mosque compound

(7 Jun 2004) SHOTLIST
VIDEO QUALITY AS INCOMING
1. Tracking shot of police car on road
2. Tracking shot
3. Police directing traffic with fire truck
4. Smoke rising from mosque
5. Tracking shot of smoke rising from mosque
6. Various of smoke rising from mosque
7. Wide of mosque with smoke

STORYLINE

Explosions rocked the compound surrounding the Kufa mosque on Monday after ammunition used by fighters loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr apparently caught fire, witnesses and Shiite militia members said.

At least nine people were hurt according to hospital officials.

Flames and smoke rose above the building. Firefighters and ambulances raced to the site, where fighters in al-Sadr's al-Madhi army had been holed up.

One militiaman blamed an American missile attack, but the US military said it had no troops in the area.

A spokesman for the US-led coalition said no forces were near the mosque at the time of the blast. Iraqi police took small arms fire when they tried to approach to see what was going on, the US military said.

The mosque had been the site of near-daily clashes between American troops and al-Sadr's forces. However, the site had been peaceful since Thursday under a deal meant to end the fighting.

Under the plan, al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army is supposed to pull back from the Islamic shrines in Kufa and its twin city, Najaf, and hand over security to Iraqi police.

The US Army agreed to a request from the local governor to keep US troops away from the Kufa mosque, where al-Sadr preaches, to give Iraqi security forces a chance to ease tensions.

At the Furat al-Awsat hospital in Kufa, Mohammed Abdul-Kadhim, a nurse, said that nine people were brought in with injuries from the explosions, mostly burns. The injured included both civilians and militiamen, he said.

However, the number of the injured may be higher since the al-Mahdi militia is known not to take their injured to the local hospitals.

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