14 killed in south Iraq

Fourteen people were killed in an apparent electricity generator explosion in Iraq's southern port city of Basra on Saturday, officials said. The blast occurred at around 7:15 pm (1615 GMT) in the crowded Ashaar market in the centre of the city, 450 kilometres (280 miles) south of Baghdad, and injured another 110 people, a medical official in the emergency services department of the city's Sadr hospital said.
"The explosion was caused by an electricity generator short-circuiting," said Colonel Karim al-Zaidi, a spokesman for Basra's police command. Private communal generators are common in Iraq, where demand for electricity dramatically outstrips supply, forcing the use of unpopular rationing. The electricity shortfall triggered protests across the country over the summer, including in Basra, that eventually led to the resignation in June of the electricity minister.