PARIS, Oct 7: Interference by the Pentagon delivered a massive blow to efforts to provide humanitarian relief for Iraq after last year's invasion, according to two US aid experts who struggled with the conflict's chaotic aftermath.

In trenchant criticism, the pair say the Department of Defense alienated aid workers, misjudged the scale of looting that wrecked Iraq's health service and sent out bureaucrats who only served to complicate matters.

The traditional American response to humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters abroad is carried out by the State Department's US Agency for International Development (USAID) and Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).

In the months leading up to the war, these agencies trained up an 80-person team specially for Iraq, many of them with long expertise in emergencies, says the commentary, published by Frederick Burkle and Eric Noji in Saturday's Lancet. But that initiative was hamstrung by the Pentagon which, breaking with tradition, decided to set up its own humanitarian planning team, say the authors. That move sowed doubt and suspicion among non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in relief work, they allege.

Many of these agencies distanced themselves, fearful that their reputation for neutrality would be compromised on the ground if they had to work with occupying troops, say Burkle and Noji.

"The situation was further complicated by the fact that the [Pentagon] humanitarian planning team, citing secrecy, refused to disclose crucial information needed for planning not only to international relief organisations but also to other US military, government and civilian agencies working on humanitarian relief," they add.

As confusion mounted between the rival State Department and Pentagon relief initiatives, the US government decided to give overall administrative control to the Department of Defense's team - by now named the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA). The big problem, though, was that Pentagon planners had not taken into account the risk of looting after the fall of Saddam Hussein. -AFP