BAGHDAD, April 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Iraqi citizens in Baghdad and other major cities across the county have taken arms Friday, April 11, to defend themselves and their valuables against looters, accusing the U.S. and British forces of turning a blind eye to the chaos and anarchy they created.

This prompted a host of Iraqi lawyers to lodge a protest with the American "occupation" forces.

They demanded the American forces to either assume the responsibility of maintaining security in the occupied capital or withdraw and leave the task form the Iraqis themselves.

"Iraqi legal experts as well as university professors are ready to take charge of restoring security in the capital if the American occupation forces withdraw," a representative of the Iraqi lawyers stressed in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV channel.

"This is an Islamic country, and its people could not behave in such a way, American forces are involved in encouraging such pillaging," another lawyer told Al-Jazeera correspondent in the Iraqi capital.

Three days after the U.S. forces seized control of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital and other major cities plunged in chaos with wider scenes of looting.

Shopkeepers in central areas of Baghdad had opened fire at looters for the first time, forming quasi-militias to guard their stores, charging U.S. forces of being unwilling to stop the chaos.

In Al-Rasafi market, merchant Mohammed al-Shamai fired his pistol in the air as he saw a band of young looters nearing his seven-storey garment store.

"We want law and order and we want the Americans to protect our stores," said Shamai, who complained that 50,000 dollars worth of his merchandise had already been spirited away.

At the brick-built Al-Arabi market, whose inside was completely torched Thursday, April 10, shopkeepers fired Kalashnikov rifles toward looters approaching for another go.

"If the Americans don't defend us then we'll defend ourselves with our own weapons," said merchant Khazen Hussein.

Young people were also seen with iron bars running after potential thieves.

Baghdad has seen rampant looting since U.S. troops rolled in on Wednesday, April 9, and the two-and-half-decade authority of Saddam Hussein crumbled.

Almost everything has been considered fair game, from the luxury homes of senior regime figures to European diplomatic missions.

Despite some public expressions of joy at the regime's collapse, the chaos has left some merchants longing for the "good old days" of Baghdad’s strongman.

"Of course we miss Saddam Hussein now," said Kazem al-Fartisi, 52, who owns several electronics and clothing stores in the al-Arabi area.

"Under him this would never have happened. The police would have stopped the thieves. The Americans are only here to occupy us and drive us into ruin," he charged.

Several Iraqi citizens bluntly accused the American forces of turning a blind eye to the looting, if not instigating it.

U.S. forces said they are still bringing order to Baghdad and have put a first priority on securing civilian infrastructure.

But the residents here said it is a bit late, with their houses plundered and many of the state buildings stripped of valuable things.

Meshal Shahi, 37, heaped scorn on the U.S. troops' approach.

"They protect the oil Ministry building, the foreign ministry building, but I've seen them with my own eyes encouraging the looters," he charged.

"If the Americans don't do anything, we'll fight against them," threatened Hazem Shami.

"Why don't they force the police to come back to work?"

He said that while in the countryside tribes had organized ways to keep order, "here there's nothing, so we will defend ourselves."

Garner is running the U.S. Defense Department's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) for Iraq, whose mission is to provide humanitarian assistance and work on reconstructing Iraq.

Ironically, it appears unprecedented to have someone in charge of rebuilding a country who until recently headed a weapons company that was partially responsible for its destruction by developing.

Twenty-five people were admitted to Baghdad's Al-Kindi hospital after suffering gunshot wounds in clashes during the looting.

But the hospital, Baghdad's largest, can provide little help as it has been looted itself.

"The situation is chaotic and catastrophic," Peter Tarabula, medical coordinator for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said after an ICRC team inspected the hospital.

All staff have fled Al-Kindi hospital with the exception of two doctors who administer first aid but do not operate.

"The doctors have all left," said nurse Jawad al-Jabiri.

Few patients have remained at the hospital since the looting Thursday, in which armed men stole two ambulances and medicine from the facility.

U.S. troops called to assist them replied that they had no orders to intervene and medical staff said they were powerless to stop the thieves.

"My son is sick and I don't dare drive him to the hospital because even that has been looted and the Americans aren't even lifting a finger," lamented Masaad Bibo, 32.

Shiite fighters from the southern city of An-Najaf have set up camp at Al-Kindi hospital and are posted at all the exits.

They are led by Sheikh Abbas al-Zubaidi, who donned a white doctor's gown over his traditional robe.

As U.S. and Kurdish fighters claimed control of Iraq's northern city of Mosul Friday, the areas in the country's third city saw the spread of looting.

An Iraqi opposition figure, Mashaan al-Juburi, told Al-Jazeera television, "We want to install order and protect official buildings in Mosul very quickly," noting such buildings were the main target of widespread looting.

"All the Arab tribes and the inhabitants of the city are involved in this operation," he said.

Imams of mosques initiated efforts to restore order after "feeling the U.S. forces would not help them."

Through the mosques, popular committees were formed to take over stopping the looting inside the city.

The committee members managed through checkpoints to stop all trucks loaded with plundered things.

"The chaos was a bit controlled with these popular initiatives regardless of the presence of the U.S. forces or the absence of Iraqi police," said Al-Jazeera correspondent.

Mosul, located 450 kilometers (280 miles) north of Baghdad, is an Arab-majority enclave of 1.5 million inhabitants in the mostly Kurdish north and surrounded by oil fields.

It is strategically important because of its airport and a missile base, and was the target of U.S.-British air raids from the beginning of the war in Iraq on March 20.

Meanwhile U.S. troop reinforcements headed Friday to Kirkuk with orders to secure the city, said Barham Salah, the Kurdish "prime minister" of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)'s area of the autonomous zone of northern Iraq.

After a night of ceaseless looting, Rizgarali Hamgam, installed as provisional governor by the Kurds following the seizure of Kirkuk, admitted, "We cannot control the situation."

Looters who followed Kurdish fighters in the city made off with lorry loads of booty, while hardly a drop of petrol could be found.