Hundreds of unarmed Iraqi police returned to Baghdad streets today under the supervision of US forces trying to restore order in the chaotic capital.
But in a reminder of the mammoth task facing police, looters also made a comeback, making forays into a presidential palace to scavenge whatever was left from earlier bouts of looting.
Law and order collapsed in Baghdad on April 9th, the day US troops toppled Saddam Hussein, setting off a wave of robbery and violence. Security in the volatile city of five million has improved since then, but is far from complete.
Some policemen had returned to work in the past week or two, in response to earlier US appeals for them to do so, but their presence was limited and barely visible.
But today, traffic police were back in their familiar uniforms of blue trousers and white shirts, directing traffic at several of Baghdad's clogged road junctions and patrolling roads in blue-and-white police cars.
The US military says about 3,000 Iraqi police are back at work in the city and has urged more to return to duty.
Returning policemen said they were upset that US forces had not done more themselves to restore order amid the political vacuum left by the overthrow of Saddam's government. "The Americans are to blame for the chaos," one policeman said. "They did not appoint a known Iraqi person to run things."
As police reappeared in Baghdad, a Reuters photographer saw looters emerge from Saddam's Republican Palace in a central area, making off with lamps, paintings and even a badly damaged vintage car.
The US administration and military use part of the vast complex, but the looters, some carrying pistols, appeared to have slipped through the security cordon. The palace was heavily bombed during the war and looted afterwards.