Baghdad police officers volunteer for duty

US Marines battled snipers outside a hotel in central Baghdad today, while calm appeared to return to other parts of the Iraqi capital.

With the lawlessness apparently easing, several hundred Iraqi men today volunteered to take part in joint police patrols with US troops to quell looting and violence in the city of five million.

The patrols were expected to begin as quickly as possible in Baghdad, which has been wracked by widespread unrest since the fall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s regime.

At the Iraqi police academy, men in plainclothes and uniform gathered in response to a call by a coalition-run Arabic language radio station and Arab satellite TV to take part in joint patrols.

Police Lt Col Haitham al-Ani said the US troops and the Iraqis would patrol in separate cars and that the Iraqi police would not be allowed to carry guns initially.

Local men, desperate to see calm return, helped the Marines translate and point out the guilty.

“I came here thinking I wouldn’t need any Arabic at all – just ‘Put your hands up’ and ‘Put your weapons down,”’ Marine Sgt Steven Christopher said. “They have been teaching me how to talk to the thieves. Things like, ‘You are lying, I’m not stupid,’ and ‘If you steal, we will kill you.”’

Flares lit up the area overnight around the Palestine Hotel, where many international journalists are staying, as Marines fought heavy gun battles with snipers. At least one man was captured.

Qatar-based satellite television Al-Jazeera showed US Marines guarding three men thought to be among the snipers. Marines stormed a building next to the hotel where the three men had barricaded themselves, Al-Jazeera said, but the men denied shooting, saying they were security guards.

Most stores remained closed today, as were government offices. Residents were seen collecting and burning rubbish, buses were running and were packed with passengers.

Looters yesterday swarmed the Al-Salam presidential palace on the west banks of the Tigris, swiping bone china with the Iraqi eagle insignia, fancy wash basins and bathtubs – even fish from the garden pond.

They marvelled at Saddam’s life of luxury as they stepped over shards of crystal from chandeliers and shattered mirrors.

“That was how our pharaoh lived,” one man said.

“Look how he lived when we couldn’t even get bread,” said another man.

Sporadic bursts of gunfire were heard on the palace grounds.

The looters, including women in black chadors and children, hauled away statuary from the manicured lawns and stripped white marble off the walls. Some tried to carry away massive gilded doors.

They tossed hand grenades in the ponds and walked away with nylon bags full of the dead fish that floated to the surface.

US troops have been trying to curb widespread looting in Baghdad even as they face pockets of resistance.

US officials say the hold-outs include hard-core fighters – Republican Guard soldiers, Fedayeen militiamen, Special Security Organisation gunmen and “a number” of foreigners, specifically Syrians.

Since rolling into the Iraqi capital last week, US forces have largely stood by and allowed the looting to continue, causing resentment among residents.

Presidential palaces, government ministries and the Iraq National Museum – the repository of the nation’s cultural heritage – have been stripped bare.

New graffiti, scrawled in English, appeared on a wall: “Bush supports looters.”

Outside the Palestine Hotel, at least 60 people vented their anger at the Americans. They carried banners that read: “Bush Down,” “American Forces must leave immediately” and “Bush + Saddam = One.”

Hundreds of cars loaded with personal belongings entered Baghdad from the city’s western approaches, an indication that people who fled the fighting were coming home.

US Marines continued to find large stores of weapons, with explosives, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades turning up in trucks parked on major roads, in schools and in open fields.

“Get this stuff out,” said 41-year-old Achmad Idan, as he stood next to a truck filled with anti-tank rounds. “These people can’t live here.”