American soldiers raided a mosque in Baghdad on Sunday and captured three suspects hiding inside, the military said. The detainees include a man believed to be responsible for distributing weapons to build bombs for attacks on American and Iraqi forces, the U.S. military said in a statement.
"We do not enter mosques for the sole purposes of disrupting insurgent activities or conducting a show of force. Mosque entries occur only as a last resort," said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman.
During the operation, an Iraqi woman suffered wounds to her thigh and head, the statement said. She was treated on the scene, then transported to a local hospital.
Also Sunday, the U.S. military announced that more than 50 "insurgents" were detained in a three-day operation in Salahuddin province north of Baghdad. Three were killed in raid, the Americans said in another statement.
Meanwhile, two policemen died and three wounded in clashes in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Sunday, police said. Fighting broke out when gunmen opened fire on a police checkpoint, said Brig. Abdel-Karim Khalaf, spokesman for police in Nineveh province.
According to the AP, another policeman died when gunmen opened fire on a police station in Baghdad's Azamiyah neighborhood, a Sunni district, police said.
Also Sunday, a bomb hidden in a cigarette cart exploded in central Baghdad, wounding four civilians and damaging two cars, police said.
