U.S. soldiers attempt to calm Iraqis during a rally demanding the reinstatement of law and order in the center of Baghdad

BAGHDAD, April 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As looting and robberies have become free-for-all in the Iraqi capital and other major cities, the U.S. come under diatribe for encouraging the chaotic scenes to justify sending additional troops and appear with its agents as the sole solution in the eyes of the Iraqi people.

Hundreds of Iraqis have demonstrated in the centre of Baghdad demanding the U.S. troops urgently combat the wave of lawlessness that has swept the capital, BBC News Online reported Saturday, April 12.

"We need a transitional government as soon as possible…We love peace," read a placard.

"The United States is destroying Iraq to install a government chosen by hawks in Washington," the Lebanese daily Al-Mostaqbal reported Saturday.

"It appears this situation serves the Americans' purposes, because Iraqis will then accept any kind of authority, in particular one tied to the U.S. administration, and the hawks will attain their goals," asserted the paper.

In Syria, the press accused Washington of fuelling insecurity by destroying the institutions in Baghdad to show Iraqis cannot rule themselves.

The "occupiers have worked and are working with all their might to dismantle the structures and companies of the state and force Iraq into the unknown," the Tishrin daily wrote.

The Saudi newspaper Al-Watan stressed that "what is taking place in Iraqi cities has never been seen in medieval ages or even deep in history when the law of the jungle was predominant.

"The question is: What are the U.S.-British forces, which claimed that they had come to 'liberate' the Iraqi people, bringing democracy and freedom from the regime's oppression, doing?".

Another Saudi daily, Okaz, warned Iraq could be torn by sectarian strife.

"Selfish interests and sectarian conflicts between various political and ideological forces may dominate, thus making a foreign presence in Iraq an extreme necessity," the paper said.

Al-Riyadh paper charged looting and destruction were being encouraged by the forces that invaded Iraq.

"Subjecting the country's resources to looting, with the encouragement of the invading forces, aims at keeping the Iraqi people engaged in acts of revenge and tribal and sectarian wars, so the U.S.-British saviours can convince the Iraqi people they are needed," the Saudi paper said.

Vigilante groups sprang up in Baghdad Friday, April 11, to defend Iraqi capital from it from looting which ran amok after the toppling of the Iraqi regime on April 9.

Including police officers, hundreds of Iraqis volunteered to help restore order in Baghdad.

"We stand ready to help restore order  in Baghdad…We just ask U.S. troops to provide us with patrol vehicles and loudspeakers," a retired Iraqi police officer told Al-Jazeera satellite channel Saturday.

"We are driven by a patriotic sense to do so," said an Iraqi police brigadier.