An explosion at a base of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces in Baghdad on Saturday killed one member of the paramilitary alliance and wounded four, Iraqi security and medical sources told Reuters.
Arab Times reported the blast was at a PMF ammunition depot in eastern Baghdad. It started a fire, which the PMF says was brought under control.
What the PMF says
In a statement, the PMF said "a stockpile of obsolete ammunition had exploded." It put the number injured at five.
That account has not been independently confirmed. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has ordered an investigation, his office said. No one has claimed responsibility, and no official has suggested the explosion was an attack.
Why it gets attention
The PMF is not an ordinary military unit. It is an umbrella of mostly Shiite armed factions formed in 2014 to fight the Islamic State, later formally folded into Iraq's state security forces. Several of its groups are aligned with Iran, which puts its bases at the centre of regional tensions.
That is why explosions at PMF sites draw immediate speculation online. The last one did. On November 4, 2025, a large blast at the PMF's main base at Jurf al-Naddaf, south of Baghdad, killed at least one member. The PMF said explosives left behind by the Islamic State had gone off. Social media users claimed to have seen drones and blamed Israel, but no evidence of a strike was ever produced.
Saturday's explosion is the second deadly blast at a PMF site in Baghdad in under a year. For now, the only explanation on the record is the PMF's: old ammunition that should not have still been there.
What to watch
The investigation's findings, and whether the government publishes them.
Whether the PMF's account holds, or whether other explanations emerge from officials rather than social media.
Safety at the depots. If old munitions are being stored in a city of nine million, two fatal explosions in a year is a question in itself.
This is a developing story, published Saturday, October 17, 2026. Casualty figures come from security and medical sources cited by Reuters; the PMF's own figure differs slightly. The cause has not been independently established.
