"A convoy of US forces was passing the al-Rashid theatre when they stopped after hearing explosions," theatre director Jabbar Meheweis Majid told AFP, without explaining the source of the blasts.

"The soldiers shot at the front of the theatre where the company was in rehearsals," he said, showing the bullet holes where three rounds had impacted.

"They came into the theatre, searched the place and found 300 weapons which have been used as props in several films and plays."

The weapons, he said, were Czech-manufactured Brno multi-barreled firearms used in Iraq in the struggle against British occupation in the 1920s.

The theatre, damaged in the three-week US-led bombing of Baghdad that launched the war on March 20, is part of a complex which included the national film company and the information ministry under the ousted regime.

"I personally knew nothing about the existence of these weapons in the theatre, but we want the Americans to keep them without destroying them because they're part of our artistic heritage," Majid added.

A US military spokeswoman said she was unaware of the incident.

WAR.WIRE