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Frenzy of looting grips Baghdad

US soldiers attempt to calm Iraqis during an anti-US rally in the center of Baghdad yesterday. US and British troops struggled to restore order to Iraqi cities yesterday as looters ransacked shops and government buildings. PHOTO: REUTERS

US and British troops struggled to restore order to Iraqi cities yesterday as looters rampaged through ministries, schools and shops in a frenzy of plunder and arson.

US soldiers with tanks secured the last known Baghdad stronghold of foreign fighters loyal to Saddam Hussein, while planes pounded Saddam's home base, Tikrit -- the only important town yet to fall to the invaders in the 24-day war.

Further north, US troops headed into Iraq's third largest city, Mosul, in the first major deployment there since Iraqi forces surrendered on Friday. Despite the US presence, the city remained anarchic, dangerous and rife with gunfire.

One week after US soldiers smashed their way into the Iraqi capital, Marines set up round-the-clock patrols in parts of the city and said they planned to impose a night curfew in an effort to halt pillaging.

The UN cultural agency UNESCO urged the US and Britain yesterday to take immediate steps to protect Iraq's antiquities, after Baghdad looters grabbed treasures dating back to the dawn of civilization.

UNESCO said its director general Koichiro Matsuura had written to US and British authorities, emphasizing the urgent need to preserve a heritage considered to be "one of the richest in the world."

Looters ransacked the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad yesterday, smashing display cases and running off with treasures.

"They have looted or destroyed 170,000 items of antiquity ... They were worth billions of dollars," said a weeping Nabhal Amin, deputy director of the museum.

In some well-to-do neighborhoods, locals formed armed vigilante groups to protect their property, kicking and punching anyone suspected of plundering goods.

"We've been wanting to kill Saddam Hussein for 20 years but we couldn't. So we are grateful to the [US]. We would not have been able to do it without them," said Nezar Ahmed, an electrical engineer in central Baghdad. "But the Americans are letting thieves take everything from the Iraqi people. It is their responsibility to keep security."

In the north, Kurdish peshmerga fighters tried to impose order in the oil hub of Kirkuk, checking cars coming in and out of the city.

Kurdish forces swept into Kirkuk on Thursday, ringing alarm bells in neighboring Turkey, which suspects the Iraqi Kurds want to claim the city as capital of an independent state. Turkey fears this could fan separatism among its own Kurds.

The Kurds said they would withdraw from the city by the end of Saturday, handing over control to US troops.

There was evidence that the invading forces were shifting their focus away from fighting and toward administration, with US officials hurriedly making plans for a conference in Iraq early next week to discuss the country's future government.

British forces in the southern town of Basra said they hoped to start patrols with local police officers within 48 hours.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld denied that Iraq was in chaos and accused the media of exaggerating the looting.

"It's untidy. And freedom's untidy. And free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things," a riled Rumsfeld said in Washington.

"They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things. And that's what's going to happen here," he added.

US bombers pounded the positions of Saddam loyalists in Tikrit, 180km north of Baghdad, preparing the way for an eventual ground assault on the town.

Lead elements of the 30,000-strong 4th Infantry Division moved into Iraq from Kuwait yesterday -- the only US division in the area yet to see any action.

US sources have indicated that the 4th Infantry will be sent to Tikrit, where senior supporters of Saddam are believed to be preparing a last stand.

Some people have suggested that Saddam himself might be hiding in Tikrit, although others believe he might have died in a bombing raid on Baghdad last week.

Humanitarian officials have warned that widespread disorder in Iraqi cities threatens to snarl delivery of badly needed aid, while the Red Cross said Baghdad's medical system had all but collapsed due to combat damage, looting and fear of anarchy.

Two US C-130 transport planes flew 20 tonnes of medical supplies from Kuwait to Baghdad late Friday -- among the first equipment and medicine to reach the city since Saddam's fall.

US forces took control of a security stronghold in the west of the city yesterday, where militia and foreign volunteers from across the Arab world had been holding out.

The US hopes to bring together a wide variety of Iraqis next week to decide who will initially govern a country divided among the majority Shiite Muslims, the minority Sunni Muslims who have long ruled and separatist Kurds in the north.
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