U.S., Iraqis Point Fingers After Fatal Blast

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The U.S. and Iraqis played a bitter blame game Saturday following the explosion of a weapons cache that killed at least six Iraqi civilians.

Irate Iraqis said U.S. forces were responsible, claiming Iraq's military overseers weren't living up to their pledge to protect the people formerly ruled under Saddam Hussein's iron grip.

"This is the safety that Bush promised us?" asked Munthir Safir, whose white caftan was caked with the blood of his family. Around him, sobbing women collapsed over the coffins of two adults and four teenagers.

The U.S. military defended itself, saying unknown attackers fired four flares into the sprawling open missile dump containing 80 Iraqi missiles.

In Qatar, U.S. Central Command spokesman Lt. Mark Kitchens (search) placed blame squarely on what he called "the despicable people" who allegedly fired the flares.

"This is not just an attempt to disrupt the process of peace. It's a crime against the Iraqi people," Kitchens said.

The disaster touched off protests in the stricken Zafaraniyah (search) section and in Baghdad's center. "No Saddam! No Bush! Yes to Islam!" men shouted, shaking their fists.

Hours after the initial blast, the blackened crater left at the missile cache continued to emit smoke. Explosives boomed, a rocket whistled and rounds popped. One unexploded missile protruded from a lawn. U.S. forces promised to send removal experts.

One American soldier, who was not immediately identified, suffered a broken arm in the initial attack on the depot, said Col. John Peabody, commander of U.S. Army's 11th Engineering Brigade.

Elsewhere on Saturday, U.S. soldiers found 14 suspicious barrels, including one that preliminary tests found could contain a mixture of nerve and blistering agents, according to ABC News. The barrels were found about 25 miles north of Saddam Hussein's home region of Tikrit (search) in a large weapons storage area that included missiles and missile parts. ABC was escorted to the site by the U.S. military.

Previous finds of chemicals suspected of being weapons of mass destruction have turned out to be false alarms. The Pentagon said it was aware of the report but could not confirm it.

The disaster in Baghdad struck at 7:50 a.m. as residents slept or assembled bread and tea for breakfast.

Out of sight of U.S. troops at the depot, someone fired four flares over a wall around an open field where ordnance had been stored, said Sgt. 1st Class Ronald King, a witness.

Americans said some of the tactical weapons had been stored there by Saddam's regime, which had stashed such items in schools, homes and other populated areas.

The U.S. military had put some of the ordnance there itself, however, collecting abandoned Iraqi caches from around the city for later disposal, King said.

The cache included Russian-made Frog-7s and Iraq's own Al Samoud 2 -- 80 missiles in all, said Col. John Peabody, commanding officer of the U.S. Army's 11th Engineering Brigade, which had been helping at the site.

The flares hit an ammunition pit, setting fire to wooden ammo crates, King said. In a flash, deadly remnants of Saddam's regime were pounding homes without warning. Booms rattled windows across the city.

About a mile away, a missile plowed into a dirt lane between two rows of crude two-story homes. Walls crumbled and roofs blew off, demolishing four houses. Inside one, the impact killed a 50-year-old worker, his four teenage children and his 23-year-old daughter-in-law, a new mother.

"Our house collapsed. That's all I remember," Mohammed Khazaal, 15, said from a hospital bed, his head wrapped in bandages and gashes across his body. A brother of the dead young woman, he had been sleeping when the missile hit.

Nearby, medical workers treated deep cuts in the legs of Zeineb Thamer, the year-old daughter of the woman who died. Blood matted Zeineb's light-brown hair. In English, the message on her T-shirt declared, "Welcome, Little Friend."

Peabody said 10 or more Iraqis were wounded. Two of them were said to be near death.

U.S. forces initially came under small-arms fire when they went to the scene, Peabody said. They returned fire.

Peabody wouldn't speculate on exactly who fired the flares. "Somebody who does not want us to be here," he said.

Ultimately, Peabody said, the fallen Iraqi regime was responsible. "We are very sorry that the practice of Saddam Hussein putting his missiles ... throughout Baghdad has resulted in this."

Many Iraqis in the area, though, contended that an intentional American blast had triggered the disaster.

"Why?" one distraught man demanded when three American GIs went to search for missile parts in the shattered home. Responded one American: "It's not our fault."

In Zafaraniyah, residents described days of what appeared to be blasts carried out by the U.S. forces at the missile dump, apparently to demolish leftover Iraqi weaponry.

Mohammed Hussein said he and some neighbors had personally visited U.S. military officers to stress that the depot was near crowded neighborhoods. American forces halted night explosions after that, and ended the daytime ones three or four days ago, Hussein and others said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.