Two killed in Baghdad mosque clash

A suspected suicide car bomb exploded as a convoy of five police vehicles drove past in Baghdad yesterday, killing at least two people and wounding five, police said.

Thick smoke rose from the site of the blast and ambulances raced to the scene, sirens wailing. At least three gutted cars smoldered in the center of the road, as firefighters hosed them with water.

Guerrillas have repeatedly attacked Iraq's police and security forces.

Medical sources said two Iraqis were killed and nine wounded in the clashes inside the Abu Hanifa mosque, considered one of the most important Sunni mosques in Iraq and already raided several times by US forces.

"We have received two killed and nine wounded, eight of them in serious condition," said Amin Lamin from Al-Numan hospital.

Some 200 to 300 national guardsmen stormed the mosque after prayers, throwing sound grenades and firing shots in the air, the correspondent said.

Their purpose was not immediately clear but some worshippers, gathered outside, said the troops had arrested the mosque imam, Sheikh Muayed al-Adhami.

During his sermon, the imam had charged that after their onslaught on the rebel city of Fallujah in western Iraq, US forces would target Latifiyah.

The town, which lies a few kilometres south of Baghdad, commands access to most of southern Iraq from the capital and has become known as an area where scores of Iraqis and foreigners have been killed or kidnapped by Sunni rebels.

Soon after the guardsmen moved on the mosque, US forces arrived and entered and then posted soldiers on the roof. Women were allowed to leave the premises but men were trapped inside.