Twelve Iraqi looters were killed in an explosion today at an ammunition dump in Tikrit.
The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television channel quoted residents of Saddam Hussein's hometown, 175 km north of Baghdad, as saying the 12 had broken into the dump at dawn to loot copper to resell.
The dump remained on fire several hours after the explosion and the sector was declared a closed military zone by US forces.
Earlier, the American-led administration in Iraq said it would more than double the number of guards protecting the country's oil installations.
The contract to provide an extra six and a half thousand civilian guards has been awarded to an international security company already working in Iraq.
The move follows an attack at the weekend on a vital export pipeline to Turkey.
That, and the destruction of a water main in Baghdad, have raised fears of a concerted campaign of sabotage by opponents of the administration.
