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Us moves to tackle looting

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   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2938535.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2938535.stm

US moves to tackle looting
US forces in Baghdad say they are taking measures to try to end the serious security problems in the city caused by looting.
The Americans are setting up a civil military operations centre at the Palestine hotel and have appealed for Iraqis running the public services in Baghdad to come forward and aid them.

Correspondents say it is the first sign that the US military is attempting to tackle disorder in the city since law and order broke down after American troops rolled into the heart of the Iraqi capital and seized control.

On Thursday, the United Nations and international aid officials criticised US and British troops for failing to curb the looting in Baghdad and in southern Iraq, saying it threatened to deepen the country's humanitarian crisis.

Hospitals ransacked

BBC correspondents say looting in Baghdad has reached epidemic proportions.

The coalition forces seem to be completely unable to restrain looters or impose any sort of control on the mobs that now govern the streets
UN spokeswoman Veronique Taveau
The BBC's Rageh Omaar in Baghdad says many Iraqis are barricading themselves in their homes for fear of looters and essential services have been crippled.
Two key Baghdad hospitals and many smaller ones have been ransacked, International Red Cross officials say.

The BBC's Andrew Gilligan says he saw heart monitors and incubators being dragged out the building by looters, along with anything else that could be moved.

One boy, allegedly a looter, was beaten to death in front of him by residents taking the law into their own hands, he adds.

Fighting continues

Despite appearing to control large parts of the capital, US troops were engaged in fierce fighting on Thursday as they battled die-hard supporters of President Saddam Hussein.

In northern Baghdad, US Central Command said fighting raged for four hours around the Imam al-Adham mosque, before US marines crushed the Iraqi resistance.

At one point the US military believed senior Iraqi leaders might be hiding there.

One US marine was killed and up to 20 wounded when Iraqi troops - thought to be members of the elite Republican Guard - ambushed a marine convoy in the area with machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

On Thursday night, at least four US marines were injured in an apparent suicide bomb attack on a military checkpoint in the area of Saddam City, a poor area in the north of Baghdad.

US marines told the BBC they saw an Iraqi man approach the checkpoint and detonate a number of grenades.

The Pentagon says US troops have been dealing with pockets of resistance as a top priority, before turning their attention to restoring law and order.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/2938535.stm

Published: 2003/04/11 09:31:23

© BBC MMIII



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