Gunmen stormed a Sunni mosque in west Baghdad early today, killing three people in a 25 minute gunbattle, police said.
Seven others were wounded. US forces blocked off the area after the exchange of fire.
A spokesman said the attackers hit the al-Nour mosque in Baghdad's Jihad neighbourhood shortly after midnight.
This morning several masked gunmen were guarding the mosque. Windows were broken, the exterior walls were pockmarked where they had been hit with bullets and dozens of spent casings lay in the road, where there were at least two unexploded hand grenades.
The imam, Sheikh Shaker Mahmoud, told reporters that "a gang using ten cars stormed the mosque. The cars used by the attackers are the same as those used by the Interior Ministry. The attackers were wearing military uniforms".
"They launched an attack on our mosque. They broke windows and stormed the courtyard," the cleric said.
Witnesses said US helicopters hovered above the gunbattle. US forces moved in to stop the fighting and remove the dead and wounded. A spokesman said all the wounded appeared to be mosque guards. The identity of the three dead was not immediately known.
AP