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With wild crowds ransacking everything from hospitals to military armories, Iraq is in a frenzy of vigilante justice despite efforts by coalition troops to rein in the chaos with a mixture of curfews, cajoling and force.

U.S. Central Command in Qatar insists it has enough soldiers and training to fill the void left by a vanquished Iraqi government and its no-show police. But looting free-for-alls from Baghdad to Mosul underscore the magnitude of the challenge ahead.

"Tell the Americans to stop the killing and the looting. We can't live like this much longer," said 41-year-old Baghdad resident Jabryah Aziz. "I need to feel safe so I can go and collect my food ration."

More towns plunged into anarchy Friday with coalition troops continuing their advance and President Bush declaring Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein "no longer in power."

Ambulances were hijacked at gunpoint. Banks were plundered with notes bearing Saddam's portrait shredded into confetti. University computer centers were stripped to their wall sockets. Some looters even rifled through the extensive gun collection of Saddam's son Odai.

Commanding Gen. Tommy Franks tried to address the problem with a directive Friday instructing U.S. troops to restore order in the capital.

Marines were patrolling there to defend hospitals, while to the north, in the newly taken city of Mosul, coalition forces were enforcing a dusk-to-dawn curfew. Throughout the country, meanwhile, the coalition was encouraging local religious leaders to urge calm.

Many Iraqis, however, ignored the pleas for order that blared from mosque minaret loudspeakers. Others took matters into their own hands.

The people of Baghdad's Karadeh neighborhood, fed up with thievery, grabbed Kalashnikov rifles, set up roadblocks and checked passing cars for stolen goods. Then they confiscated the loot and beat the culprits. Residents in Mosul, brandishing clubs, did the same, returning stolen booty to local mosques for safekeeping.

In Mosul, which was abandoned Friday by Iraqi fighters without a shot, civilians blamed U.S. forces for not quickly rolling into the city and establishing order.

"Why are you late? Why are you late?" people shouted at an incoming U.S. Special Forces convoy.

Outnumbered in Baghdad by 5 million residents, some coalition forces stood by impassively while Iraqis absconded with televisions, air conditioners, tools, office furniture, potted flowers waving to American soldiers all the while.

"We'll maintain security as well as we can, but we are not a police force," said Col. Steve Hummer, commanding officer of the 7th Marines.

Some say the looting was to be expected and will eventually subside, especially when there is nothing left to steal. But the military is taking it seriously, said Army Maj. Rumi Nielson-Green, a spokeswoman for the Central Command.

She said the coalition can draw on military police and other troops trained in crowd control, adding that troops were being brought in from the battlefield to handle policing efforts.

If additional manpower is needed, Nielson-Green said members of the Army's 4th Infantry Division just arriving in Kuwait, after being denied access to Iraq through Turkey could be tapped.

Franks' directive calls for the continuing operation of government offices, religious centers, schools and hospitals.

But officers said it gave no clear instructions on how to halt the looting.

So far, U.S. Marines have managed to secure some Red Cross centers in the capital. But elsewhere in the city Friday, the ministries of Education, Industry, Trade and Planning were looted and set ablaze. A nursing college and an engineering college in Baghdad were also targeted.

Critics said the Americans should have been more prepared for the mayhem.

"I think we did much less clear thinking about what we should do after we declare victory than what we did before we declare victory," said David R. Segal, director of the Center for Military Organization at the University of Maryland.

He said he expects other nations to help police the country until the Iraqis can take over.

Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks of Central Command warned that the fight to restore order could get bloody for those who don't comply. At a briefing Friday, he described how bank looters in the southern city of Basra drew weapons when challenged by coalition troops and were shot.

"Now, I'm not suggesting that's the only solution, but there are certain behaviors that we are not tolerating out there and that we believe the Iraqi population will also not tolerate over time," Brooks said.

photo credit and caption:

Kurdish fighters and civilians loot an Iraqi military storage on the outskirts of the oil-rich town of Kirkuk, Friday April 11, 2003, carring off sacks of rice and vegetable oil. Iraq's military withdrew from Kirkuk after an offense of Kurdish troops aided by U.S. special forces. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

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