Armed gangs wreak havoc

GANGS of looters, many of them armed, roamed the streets of Baghdad yesterday, ransacking offices and government buildings as US troops looked on and breaking into the houses of Saddam Hussein’s top aides.

Looters drove tractors, pick-up trucks, trailers and even a large bus up to a large villa belonging to Tareq Aziz, Saddam's deputy prime minister.

They stole everything from furniture and paintings to chandeliers and curtains, and stripped the electrical wires from the villa's main switchboard.

Many of the looters were from the Saddam City area, home to about two million impoverished Shi'ite Muslims.

Asked why he was robbing the house, one man wordlessly pointed to his open mouth to indicate he was hungry.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was concerned about the looting of hospitals.

"The hospitals themselves have come under attack for the purpose of looting. There are lots of people carrying weapons around and they make it very difficult for civilians in need of medical care to actually reach the hospitals," ICRC spokesman Roland Huguenin-Benjamin said.

A house in southern Baghdad belonging to Saddam's notorious cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid known as Chemical Ali was also robbed.

One man, who said he was an Iraqi poet and gave his name as Abu Eyaih, carried off two of Majid's walking sticks. He said he was taking the sticks as a gesture of contempt toward Majid, who sometimes walked with the aid of a stick.

"I'm not here to loot the house of this criminal Ali Hassan al-Majid. I took these two things as a symbol to humiliate him," he said.

"I am feeling sad that some Iraqis are looting furniture and equipment of public buildings. They don't belong to Saddam, they are the property of the Iraqi people.

"We should keep them where they are for the new government to use when it assumes power," he said.

The Ministry of Trade was set ablaze by looters, and flames could be seen pouring out of first floor windows of the building, close to the east bank of the Tigris river.

The finance ministry was also engulfed in fire.

A nearby Interior Ministry building housing an office for identity cards was also in flames, as people carted off furniture and computers.

Several diplomatic buildings were robbed, including the German embassy, the French cultural centre, and the house of the Finnish ambassador where one looter staggered out carrying an air-conditioning unit.