Baghdad, Iraq ? A fire broke out at an ammunition depot at a U.S. base in southern Baghdad on Tuesday night, setting off a series of explosions from detonating tank and artillery shells that shook buildings miles away. The U.S. military said there were no immediate reports of casualties.

It was not clear whether the depot at Forward Operating Base Falcon was hit by an attack. The cause of the fire was not immediately known, said Lt. Col. Christopher C. Garver, a military spokesman.

Explosions from detonating tank and artillery ordnance and small-arms ammunition stored at the site went off for hours after the fire erupted. Large flames and smoke rose from the region, and flashes from the blasts and showers of sparks were visible on the horizon from several miles away in central Baghdad, where the force of the blasts could be felt.

The blaze broke out in a holding area, where material is kept temporarily before distribution to the units at Falcon, said Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington, a spokesman at the base.

“There is a lot of ammunition there, but it’s not a full storage depot,” he said. “This does not degrade our operational ability at all.”

In other news Tuesday:

l DNA tests have confirmed that a man shot to death by British forces was a leading al-Qaida militant who embarrassed the U.S. military by making an unprecedented escape from a maximum-security military prison in Afghanistan.

Omar al-Farouq was shot and killed Sept. 25 after he opened fire on British forces during a raid on his home in Basra.

Al-Farouq, who allegedly led al-Qaida’s Southeast Asia operations, had slipped into Iraq three months earlier, according to police. It was not known why al-Farouq fled to Iraq, but officials have said he was born in Kuwait to Iraqi parents and may have had roots in the area.

l Saddam Hussein and his six co-defendants were thrown out of court Tuesday after the former leader began to shout during his trial on charges of genocide against Iraq’s Kurdish population.

Saddam interrupted the proceedings by shouting a verse from the Quran. “Fight them and God will punish them!” Saddam yelled in what appeared to be a call for members of his disbanded Arab Baath Socialist Party to continue fighting U.S. forces in Iraq.

The chief judge, Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, cut off the microphone and instructed bailiffs to escort the ex-president out of the courtroom.

Co-defendant Hussein Rashid Mohammed then stood up and shouted insults at the prosecutors. When a bailiff forced the defendant back into his chair, the former army commander threw a punch.