Two shells from an American tank narrowly missed a shrine dedicated to Guru Nanak in the suburbs of north Baghdad last week.

The spent shells are lying 10 metres away from the shrine, founded in memory of Guru Nanak's visit to Baghdad, en route to Mecca, in 1520.

Although the shrine is intact, the force of the two blasts has shattered the windows overlooking a courtyard dedicated to a famous Shia, Sheikh Bahloul, who was befriended by Imam Ali Ibn Mousa several hundred years ago. 

"Then to Baghdad did Baba Nanak go and outside the city made his abode," says an inscription on the wall, erected on the 500th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak on November 23, 1969. 

The caretaker of the shrine, Mohammed Abdul Razak, 40, says he was not present when US forces in the area were battling loyalists of Saddam Hussein last Saturday. 

"Neighbours told me afterwards what happened," Razak told rediff.com 

"I'm glad I was not here. If you go outside you can still see the tank treads on the road."

Besides the inscription, a portrait of Guru Nanak and a copy of the Guru Granth Sahib, the shrine has a picture of the Golden Temple and a small cupboard with a portrait of Guru Gobind Singh. 

Razak says members of the Indian community were regular Friday morning visitors to the shrine until the war started. Since then nobody has come. 

The Indian embassy and the ambassador's residence, a short distance away by car, have fared slightly better.

Last week armed men raided the Rafidain Bank on the same street as the chancery and the ambassador's residence.

Hadi Saleh, 40, the son of the caretaker, told rediff.com: "They came here as well, but we soon got rid of them.

"They were all thieves. One of them stood outside and wanted to talk to me. I told him, 'I don't know you.'"