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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – An ammunitions warehouse in the southwest of Erbil belonging to a Zeravani Peshmerga unit caught fire early on Thursday morning. No casualties were reported.
“In the early hours of today, an electricity fuse failure caused a fire in a warehouse containing frontline, non-military equipment. The fire spread, resulting in the explosion of weapons and artillery in a neighbouring warehouse belonging to the Zeravani Peshmerga unit,” Didawan Khursheed, a senior commander of a Zeravani unit told Rudaw.
“The storage contained weapons, mainly artillery and bullets, that are light but explosive, so they made huge sounds,” he explained.
Many fire and explosion incidents have occurred in Peshmerga weaponry storage sites since 2017. Four incidences of warehouse fires took place during last year’s exceptionally hot summer.
Many of the Peshmerga weapons in storage were received by Peshmerga forces during war the Islamic State (ISIS) as the group advanced into the south of the Kurdistan Region in August 2014. The Peshmerga urged for international support, including the provision of more weaponry.
“Incidences of fire and explosion occurring in the Kurdistan Region since 2017 have all been at Zeravani or Brigade 70 units, which are not under the command of Kurdistan Peshmerga Ministry. The ammunition and weaponry storages of Peshmerga forces have not caught fire since 2010,” Jabar Yawar, chief of staff of the Peshmerga Ministry, told Rudaw English.
“The fires are mainly caused due to lack of a weapons organisation inside the storage units. Interaction of weapons leads to the explosion of some of the rockets or bullets when the temperature within the storage unit reaches over 50 degrees celsius," he added.
Although often referred to as part of the Peshmerga, Zeravani are a militarized police force operating under the command of the Interior Ministry of the Kurdistan Region.
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