DOHA, April 12: Faced with international outrage at the breakdown of law and order in Iraq, the US military on Saturday sought to play down the scale of the chaos unleashed by its invasion and insisted Iraqis themselves must take responsibility for building a decent society.

“(Looting) is not nearly as widespread as the focus seems to be when the cameras have been at those locations,” Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said here in reply to a barrage of questions from journalists about the lack of security across Iraq.

His comments came as scenes of looting in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities broadcast across the world were giving way to shots of angry crowds taking the law into their own hands and lynching real and suspected looters.

Brooks’ remarks at US Central Command in Qatar echoed those made on Friday by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Washington.

“I picked up a newspaper today and I couldn’t believe it. I read eight headlines that talked about chaos, violence, unrest and it just was henny, penny the sky is falling,” Rumsfeld fumed.

Brooks, asked what he would tell a Baghdadi shopkeeper who has to protect his shop with a gun, said: “We tell him we’re not finished yet. We still have work to do.”

But he insisted that “because of the presence of coalition troops commerce can begin and so in many areas shops are opening”.

However, in the Iraqi capital many shops remained shut in downtown Baghdad, notably on the normally bustling Saadun Avenue.

Brooks added that “the work of combat operations is not completed so we’re still working on eliminating any remains of the (Saddam Hussein) regime ... that’s what the forces are focussed on”.

He admitted that “there are some things that are beyond our ability to reach right now”.

Pressure has been mounting on the US military since they stormed into Baghdad on Wednesday to curb the looting and other crimes unleashed by the end of more than a quarter century of dictatorial rule.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Thursday pointed out that under international law occupying forces such as the US army had the responsibility to impose law and order.

Human rights groups have made similar warnings, while a host of Arab countries have called on the coalition forces to end the rampant looting.

The US State Department said Friday that 1,200 police and judicial experts would soon be sent to Iraq to advise on how to set up a new police force. And in Baghdad itself seven Iraqi police officers and some 150 professionals turned up Saturday in response to a US appeal to help restore order and services.

But the situation there was still chaotic.

US and British soldiers have so far largely stood by and watched as Iraqis indulged in an orgy of looting that further degraded Baghdad and other cities already battered by weeks of heavy coalition bombardment.

Brooks had said on Friday that “at no point do we see (coalition forces) really becoming a police force”.

He repeated on Saturday that US forces wanted to avoid alienating the Iraqi public with aggressive action, and instead was looking to Iraqis to reign in their own behaviour.—AFP