American soldiers have shot and wounded an Iraqi woman near a Baghdad checkpoint, a US military statement says.

The Saturday statement said the soldiers wounded the woman after firing two shots at her.

The army claimed that US troops wounded the Iraqi woman because she was acting suspiciously and failed to heed warnings to stop.

The woman was evacuated to a nearby hospital, and her condition was not immediately known, it added.

The shooting occurred Thursday near a checkpoint in the central Baghdad neighborhood of Jadiriyah.

The shooting is under investigation.

About one month ago US soldiers shot dead four personnel of Iraq's Commerce Ministry in Baghdad.

A study conducted by ORB -- a British polling agency which has been tracking public opinion in Iraq since 2005 -- estimated in September 2007 that 1.2 million Iraqis had been killed in violence-related incidents following the March 2003 invasion of the country.

HSH/D