BAGHDAD, Iraq – U.S.-led coalition forces launched a military operation in Baghdad late Wednesday, targeting a facility used by insurgents and setting off explosions that reverberated through the Iraqi capital.

“The facility is a known meeting, planning, storage and rendezvous point for belligerent elements currently conducting attacks on coalition forces and infrastructure,” the Pentagon said in a statement from Washington.

“The destruction of this structure will deny enemy forces any use of it in the future.”

The 1st Armored Division operation came hours after a suicide bombing at a headquarters for Italian forces in the southern city of Nasiriyah — the deadliest assault on American allies in Iraq since the U.S.-led occupation.

Up to a dozen detonations were heard about 9:15 p.m., apparently centered away from the heart of the city.