May 15, 2003	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1424

BAGHDAD, May 14: The new US administrator for Iraq, Paul Bremer, is considering granting authority to shoot looters on sight, under a new security setup that will include hiring more police officials and banning senior members of the Baath Party from public service.

The New York Times on Wednesday quoted US officials who met Mr Bremer as saying that the administrator was also studying other tough security measures in a bid to stop the situation sliding further into anarchy.

“I think you are going to see a change in the rules of engagement within a few days to get the situation under control,” the Times quoted a US official as saying.

“They are going to start shooting a few looters so that the word gets around.”

US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld added further weight to speculations of heightened security measures when he said US troops would begin “using muscle” to capture or kill looters and other criminals.

In Baghdad, US Captain John Smathers from the military’s Judge Advocate General said there had been no change in the rules of engagement handed down as yet.

“We shoot if deadly force is being used by the looters or if they are armed. I haven’t seen new orders,” he told AFP. “We do not ignore looters. We secure the area and bring in Iraqi police.”

Mr Bremer, a career diplomat tapped by US President George Bush last week to replace retired US general Jay Garner, arrived in the capital on Monday as the nation’s new de facto ruler following a mass shake-up of the US leadership in Iraq.

The Pentagon said Garner, who had failed to establish an effective way of communicating with the Iraqi people, would leave the country in mid-June.

Even though US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld praised Garner’s work, the changeover came amid blistering criticism of his failure to get a grip on the virtual anarchy which has reigned since President Saddam Hussein was toppled on April 9.

There are regularly reports of carjackings, nightly gunbattles and organized crime gangs terrorizing residents of the capital.

Many people in Baghdad, especially women, are afraid to leave their homes and walk the streets, which are littered with piles of refuse and sewage. Many houses are still without running water or electricity.

The New York Times said Mr Bremer would also be urgently tackling the need for an effective police force, balanced by the need for “de-Baathification” to prevent ranking members from Saddam’s Baath party from taking top posts.

Iraq’s US-appointed interim health chief resigned this week amid heavy criticism over his career as a senior Baath party official.

The US-led coalition has insisted that the party has been abolished and that top Baathists are being blocked from resuming their jobs but many lower-level figures have been welcomed back to work in an effort to speed up the rebuilding process.

In addition to the massive reconstruction of a nation battered by three wars in 23 years and more than a decade of crippling UN sanctions, Bremer will also guide Iraq’s transition to an interim government.

A US-anointed council of former opposition leaders has been meeting Jay Garner and other US officials before a national congress expected by the end of this month to select the government.

RUMSFELD: Mr Rumsfeld denied the Iraqi capital had fallen into anarchy, but said more US troops were headed for Baghdad and that a crackdown was planned on looting and crime.

In “most of the city at night, the hooligans are out and the criminals, and they’re trying to do things. We’ve had people shot, wounded and killed within the last 48 hours there,” the secretary told a US Senate hearing on the defence budget.

“You asked if we have a plan. The answer is yes,” he said. “We have a full-court press on that. The forces there will be using muscle to see that the people who are trying to disrupt what’s taking place in that city are stopped and either captured or killed.”

Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia told Mr Rumsfeld he hoped the change to a civilian administrator “will not amount to merely rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic”.—Reuters