A member of the Iraqi Governing Council told two Arabic newspapers that Saddam Hussein has given interrogators information about where he has hidden money and how to find weapons arsenals used by those attacking coalition forces.

U.S. Army soldiers with the 4th Infantry Division monitor a mosque in Tikrit on Monday.

The Arab dailies Asharq Al-Awsat and Al-Hayat reported Monday that Dr. Iyad Allawi told them in interviews the former Iraqi leader admitted he invested stolen Iraqi money -- which the Iraqi Governing Council estimates at $40 billion -- in Switzerland, Japan and Germany, among others, under fictitious company names.

Allawi also told the papers that Saddam is giving the "names of people who know the location of hidden arsenals used in terrorist attacks against coalition forces and the Governing Council."

Allawi is quoted saying, "Saddam Hussein's trial would not be public since he could name countries and persons whom he gave money."

Allawi, who is heading security issues at the Iraqi Council, estimated the number of "terrorists coming from abroad who are carrying out attacks in Iraq" at more than 5,000.

Saddam surrendered to U.S. troops on December 13 from the bottom of a narrow, dark hole beneath a two-room mud shack on a sheep farm in Adwar, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) from Tikrit, Saddam's ancestral home.

Soldiers also recovered two AK 47 rifles, $750,000 in $100 denominations and a white and orange taxi in the raid.

U.S. officials said they focused on the farm based on a collection of intelligence gathered from the hostile questioning of Saddam's former bodyguards and family members.

The documents captured with Saddam have shed more light on the resistance, according to U.S. officials.

U.S.: Al Qaeda affiliates killed in Mosul
Three suspected members of Islamic militant group Ansar Al Islam, which Washington says is an affiliate of al Qaeda, were killed in a firefight with U.S. troops in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul overnight Sunday, a U.S. military spokesman said Monday in Baghdad.

Two U.S. soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division were wounded in the clash but are in stable condition, Maj. Trey Cate of the 101st Airborne told CNN.

The gunfight erupted when troops raided a house in Mosul and came under attack from assault rifles and grenades, Cate said. Five Iraqis -- a man, a woman and three children -- were detained and have been handed over to the Iraqi police, Cate said.

In addition, coalition forces have detained five people in connection with deadly weekend car bomb attacks in Karbala that killed six coalition soldiers, seven Iraqi police officers, five Iraqi civilians and the drivers of the four vehicles, a spokesman for the Multinational First Brigade said.

The spokesman said an investigation is under way, but would not provide details.

The four car bombs used in Saturday's suicide attacks in Karbala were each made with between 1,100 and 1,500 pounds of explosives and artillery shells and may have involved the help of "foreign fighters," Gen. Marek Ojrzanowski, commander of the Multinational First Brigade combat team, said Sunday.

The force is made up primarily of Poles and Bulgarians and is based in south-central Iraq.

Also Monday, a military spokesman told CNN that a blast that rattled windows in central Baghdad Monday afternoon was a controlled explosion by the U.S. military. The military routinely detonates confiscated explosives and destroys suspicious materials, but this blast was unusual because of its strength and timing.

The explosion -- on the west bank of the Tigris River -- was felt at the Palestine Hotel, where CNN and other media agencies have offices. One journalist said it was the loudest he's heard while in Baghdad.

This blast was heard about 4:35 p.m. (8:35 a.m. ET), while most controlled explosions are scheduled at the top or bottom of the hour. The spokesman did not say what it was the military was exploding.

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