May 26, 2003	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 23,1424

BAGHDAD, May 25: The US military said on Sunday it had hauled another 58 tons of ammunition out of Baghdad as it pressed ahead with efforts to bring security and safety back to the lawless Iraqi capital.

In a statement, it said 60 truckloads of ammunition were brought out of the city on Saturday, making up around 58 tons and bringing the total to 4,874 tons removed from the city so far.

The abundance of weapons available since the fall of Saddam Hussein on April 9 has been one of the greatest obstacles to restoring security and the US-led coalition announced earlier this week that a ban on many arms would be in place by next month.

Nine tons of food and medical supplies donated by Royal Jordanian airline was also delivered from the airport to downtown Baghdad, it said, and 189 trucks from the UN’s World Food Programme were headed to the city from Jordan.

It said electricity supply in Baghdad reached 727 megawatts, slightly less than half the daily requirement, and that nearly one third of the 300,000 cubic metres of rubbish clogging the streets of the capital have been removed.

On the oil front, Iraq’s extraction industry appeared to be waking up from its comatose state after the UN Security Council lifted the country’s 13-year-old sanctions last week.—AFP