An explosion rocked a Sunni mosque in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Tuesday and local residents said there may have been several casualties.

U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Frank German said on the scene that the explosion occurred shortly after dawn and appeared to have been inside the Ahbab al-Mustafa mosque in central Baghdad.

German had no details on casualties.

Local residents said several people had died, although that could not be immediately confirmed.

"An explosion rocked the mosque around 6:45 a.m. (10:45 p.m. EST Monday) in the morning. I went to the roof of my house and after three minutes I heard a second explosion," said Ahmed Abdullah, a local resident.

There was blood on the ground inside the mosque.

"When we arrived the flames had been extinguished, we set up a security zone and began the investigations," German said. "As far as we can tell there was an internal explosion inside the mosque."

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