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Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces has said the explosion at its Kalsu base was the result of an attack.

It’s not yet clear who the group may believe was behind the alleged attack, but the US has already denied any role in the incident.

In a statement, the PMF said its chief of staff Abdul Aziz al Mohammedawi had visited the location and “reviewed the details of the investigative committees present in the place that was attacked”.

The Iraqi military said a technical committee is looking into the cause of the explosion, which it said happened at 1am on Saturday (10pm on Friday UK time).

The military said there were no warplanes in the sky at the time.

The PMF includes Iran-backed groups which, operating under the banner of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, have attacked US troops in the region and targeted Israel since the eruption of the Gaza war.

Six children among nine killed in Israeli airstrike in Rafah, hospital says

Nine people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in southern Gaza, according to hospital authorities, including six children.

According to Gaza’s civil defence, the strike hit a residential building late yesterday in a western suburb in the city of Rafah, where Israel has repeatedly said it will target remaining Hamas militants.

Abu Yousef al Najjar Hospital’s records show the bodies of the six children, two women and a man were taken there.

Relatives cried and hugged the bodies of the children, wrapped in white shrouds, at the hospital.

Among those killed were Abdel-Fattah Sobhi Radwan, his wife Najlaa Ahmed Aweidah and their three children, his brother-in-law Ahmed Barhoum said.

Mr Barhoum also lost his wife, Rawan Radwan, and their 5-year-old daughter, Alaa.

“This is a world devoid of all human values and morals,” Mr Barhoum told The Associated Press on Saturday morning, crying as he held Alaa’s body in his arms.

“They bombed a house full of displaced people, women and children. There were no martyrs but women and children.”

No casualties have been reported from a second alleged overnight strike in the city.

Rafah, which lies on the border with Egypt, currently hosts more than half of Gaza’s total population of about 2.3 million people, the vast majority of whom were displaced by fighting further north.

Despite calls for restraint, including from staunch ally the US, Israel has insisted for months it intends to push on into the city, where it says many Hamas militants are located.