Arab media slammed the United States today for chaos in Iraq, charging Washington has encouraged vengence attacks and looting to ensure a compliant goverment is installed in Baghdad.
In Beirut, the daily Al-Safir, close to leaders in Syria, called the crisis "a deliberate plan" by US commanders "who let chaos reign to justify sending additional troops and appear with their agents as the sole solution in the eyes of the population.
"The main danger is that of looting and settling of scores taking on a religious and clannish tone and leading to civil war," the newspaper warned.
"They (the United States) are destroying Iraq to install a government chosen by hawks in Washington," headlined Al-Mostaqbal, owned by Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
The United States is facing mounting pressure to restore order as lawlessness seized Iraqi cities after US troops entered Baghdad and toppled Saddam Hussein's regime.
"It appears this situation serves the Americans' purposes, because Iraqis will then accept any kind of authority, in particular one tied to the US administration, and the hawks will attain their goals," Al-Mostaqbal said.
Hundreds of Iraqis, including police officers, responded Saturday to a US appeal to help restore order and services, AFP reporters in Baghdad said.
But the call failed to reassure Baghdadis, who kept their shops closed and their fingers on the trigger to defend themselves against looters.
In Syria, the official press accused Washington of fueling 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 claimed: "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 US-British forces, which claimed that they had come to 'liberate' the Iraqi people, bringing democracy and freedom from the regime's oppression, doing?".
The 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.