A weapons depot at al-Saqr base belonging to Iraq's federal police force but also used by pro-Iran paramilitaries exploded on Sunday in Baghdad's southern suburbs.

Iraq’s military blamed the explosion on high summer temperatures and poor storage, but given continuous tensions in the region some say it could have been a possible attack.

Pro-Iran militia sources claimed that United States forces bombed the base.

Multiple explosions could be heard in Baghdad on Sunday evening. Videos on social media plumes of smoke rising and a huge fireball erupting.

Security sources said the depot, which is part of a military base used by both the police and paramilitary forces, was one that had caught fire in August last year.

That fire also set off explosions heard across Baghdad, killing one person and injuring 29 others. There were no casualties reported immediately on Sunday.

Iraqi paramilitary groups with links to Iran last year blamed a series of blasts at their weapons depots and bases on the United States and Israel as tension escalated between Washington and Tehran.

The U.S. killing of Iran's Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a drone missile strike in Baghdad in January raised the threat that Iraq could become a battlefield in a conflict between Washington and Tehran.

With reporting by Reuters