WATCH: Blasts at militia group weapons depot in Iraq's Karbala

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – An explosion took place on Friday at another weapons and ammunition warehouse, belonging to a Shia armed group created by cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, near the holy Iraqi city of Karbala. 

Located in the al-Mualmeen neighborhood in Karbala, the depot belongs to the Peace Companies (Brigades) also known in Arabic as Saraya al-Salam.

The Saraya al-Salam is a 2014 revival of the Mahdi Army— a Shia armed group created in 2003 and disbanded five years later by prominent cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, head of the Sairoon coalition, winner of the May 12 national election.

Witnesses told Kurdistan 24 that the blasts rocked the city after a large fire erupted at the warehouse. Firefighters rushed to the location to put out the flames.

There were no immediate reports of casualties, and the cause of the fire is not yet known.

Three such incidents have occurred in the past month at warehouses belonging to the Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi forces in the Karbala area, the first explosion taking place on Aug. 06 and the second only four days later. The latest arms depot explosion happened on Aug. 18.

The Aug. 18 blast at a Hashd al-Shaabi-owned warehouse was followed by a statement from the militia group claiming that drones targeted their storage units.

“Two planes were spotted over the location of the incident, and official bodies confirm they are unfriendly,” the group claimed while offering no details on how the unnamed “official body” had concluded that the attacking force was “unfriendly,” beyond the fact that it had allegedly conducted an air strike.

Editing by Nadia Riva