Spinboldak, Afghanistan ? Rockets, bullets and flaming munitions ripped through a dusty border town Friday after a large ammunition dump blew up, killing at least 19 people and injuring dozens of others. The local Afghan commander blamed a rocket attack for triggering the blast.

The explosion was the latest in a series of violent incidents to rock the volatile region on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier. On Wednesday, 10 Pakistani soldiers died in a shootout with suspected al-Qaida fugitives in a remote tribal area to the northeast.

Fazaludin Agha, the local commander in Spinboldak, 300 miles southwest of the Afghan capital of Kabul, said it was not known who fired the rocket he said set off the initial explosion late Thursday at the ammunition dump. Secondary explosions continued into the early hours of Friday.

The commander said the victims included women, children and Afghan soldiers. At least seven soldiers who had been guarding the munitions cache were missing.

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Lapan said no U.S. military forces were involved or in the area when the explosions occurred.

The weapons storehouse was used by the Taliban and was taken over by the U.S.-allied Afghan forces that defeated the Islamic militia. Afghan officials said they had planned to move the depot away from the residential area.

After the explosions finally subsided, rocket-propelled grenades, anti-aircraft rounds and small arms ammunition lay strewn over a wide area of the town. Men with Kalashnikov assault rifles guarded the site.

The most seriously wounded were taken to hospitals in Chaman, about three miles away on the Pakistan side of the border, and to the Afghan city of Kandahar.

Area residents said blasts continued almost until morning as fires continued to detonate live ammunition.

Two U.N. World Food Program tents used for storage collapsed due to ground vibrations, a spokesman said.