BAGHDAD, May 17: The US army has posted an additional 9,000 soldiers to Baghdad to combat the crime-wave that has swept the capital since its fall on April 9, a US general said on Saturday.

Major General William Webster said there were 25,000 US soldiers in Baghdad compared to 16,000 soldiers one month ago and the army was now running 24-hour patrols in the city.

While security has improved in most parts of Iraq since the chaotic days following the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s government, the local police force is still largely in ruins.

“We are concerned a lot about security. It is our top priority,” Webster told a news briefing, adding that only two police stations were operational in Baghdad.

“We want to rebuild a viable Iraqi police department. It is not there yet. We did not expect the entire armed forces of Iraq to leave their equipment and put on civilian cloths,” the general said.

Iraqi generals in exile had urged the United States before the war to prepare for the likelihood of the Iraqi forces throwing down their weapons en mass, leaving Saddam with a few hundred supporters to defend him, and Iraq without authority.

In the days after US forces swept into Baghdad, looters ransacked the capital causing mayhem and destruction.

The head of United Nations emergency relief said that unless US and British forces swiftly restored security across Iraq there was the potential for grave humanitarian problems.

“At the moment there is no major humanitarian crisis in this country,” Kenzo Oshima, who is the global coordinator for humanitarian affairs for the United Nations, told a news conference in the southern city of Basra.

“However, this does not mean to say that there is no potential risk of a major humanitarian crisis. I think the conditions are there for serious trouble and problems developing if the current situation in law and order...is allowed to continue.”

Oshima repeated the UN’s insistence that according to international law, the occupying US and British forces in Iraq had a duty to ensure that law and order was upheld.

Almost every night in Basra, gunfire echoes across the rooftops and looters ransack buildings. In Baghdad, shoot-outs and theft are even more widespread.

The UN says its efforts to provide humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people have been hampered by a lack of security.

“The law and order situation and security conditions are very, very precarious,” Oshima said. “These have been affecting very negatively the activities that we carry out.” —Reuters