BAGHDAD, Jan 22: A prominent Iraqi religious figure said on Wednesday that UN weapons inspectors had searched a mosque in Baghdad this week in their hunt for evidence of banned nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes.

“On Monday a car belonging to the UN inspection team with five inspectors entered al-Nidaa mosque where there are only copies of the holy Quran,” Qutaiba Ammash, imam of the Al Nidaa mosque told reporters.

“The strange thing is that the questions raised by the five inspectors had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction,” he said. “They asked questions about the size of the mosque and even the number of worshippers at Friday prayers because the United States is afraid of the number of Friday worshippers.”

A spokesman for the inspectors said he was checking the report, which could anger Muslims in Baghdad and elsewhere, many of whom are unhappy with the Western powers’ treatment of Iraq.

“Can you imagine that struggling Iraq would be hiding weapons in places of worship? We tell the inspectors ‘you will not find what you want in our mosques...only faith’,” he said.

“If the worshippers were in the mosque at the time of their visit no doubt this would have posed a danger to their lives...The Iraqi Muslim would not accept their entry,” he said.—Reuters