Police rearm, soldiers rally in crime-ridden Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Police packed guns again Monday for the first time since the war and unpaid Iraqi soldiers rallied angrily outside a U.S. Army base in Baghdad, a city of people outraged over crime, blackouts and lack of salaries.

Many residents have said they feel helpless over the looting, arson and general lawlessness of fellow Iraqis since the U.S.-British invasion brought down President Saddam Hussein's government last month.

The nature of the problem appears to be changing from mass looting to more targeted crime: reported kidnappings, car thefts and carjackings.

In the past week, about 40 vehicles have been stolen from the national Electricity Commission, a further setback to efforts to repair lines damaged by U.S. bombing and vandalism, said Army Maj. John Cornelio of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.

On Monday, the occupation authorities distributed sidearms to Baghdad police, holdovers from the old regime who are now patrolling the city. Police guarding important sites will have assault rifles.

An estimated 5,000 of 9,000 Baghdad police have reported for duty since a call went out May 4, ORHA said. But none of Baghdad's 60 police stations -- many of which were looted -- is considered equipped, armed and secure enough to operate around the clock.

A 40-member team of police experts from Britain, the Netherlands and other nations is due in Baghdad this week to assess police operations and training.

In recent days, the U.S. Army has sent in reinforcements -- 2,000 military policemen thus far for Baghdad, with 2,000 more expected soon. Nationwide, the Americans intend to deploy 17,000 military police, ORHA said.

One of the Iraqi soldiers demanding back pay Monday said he and his comrades could help.

"We're ready to cooperate with the Americans, to maintain peace with the police," said Sgt. Saad Adai Mohammed, 40, an air force clerk. But in exchange, he said, "we demand our rights." In his case, he means $60 -- three months' back salary.

Just a month after their defeat, 300 Iraqi military men marched through east Baghdad and across a Tigris River bridge to a gate of the Republican Palace complex, the U.S. Army's main Baghdad base and ORHA headquarters.

"We don't want American money or anyone else's money," said another air force sergeant, Ali Kadhim Mohammed, 32. "We have the oil wealth of Iraq. That's what we were paid with before, and that's what we want now."

The postwar administration has made $20 emergency payments to some civil servants to restart government operations. The Iraqi military has not benefited, although Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said ORHA will look at ways to rebuild a "new and reformed" Iraqi armed forces.

Many of Iraq's 400,000 military personnel shed their uniforms and went home as the war wound down in early April. Some have since reappeared at abandoned military offices in hopes of being paid.

As the protesters stopped traffic on Saadoun Avenue, the frustrated Mohammed shouted out a hollow-sounding threat: "I'm ready to put my uniform back on again if they don't give us what we're owed."