The UN office of the Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Iraq has warned that the central and southern areas of Iraq are increasingly afflicted with "anarchy and chaos".
Ms Veronique Taveau, the agency's spokeswoman, said at a press briefing that hospitals throughout these areas, where the majority of Iraqis live, are being looted. Staff cannot get to work and engineers cannot make repairs to generators and water distribution systems "because of the chaos in the streets".
She said: "In Basra and Zubayr looting continues." The main warehouse in Basra where food is stored has been stripped bare. Looting decreased in Umm Qasr on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The World Health Organisation and UNICEF reported a high rise in the incidence of diarrhoea in the south. The two doctors reporting for duty in the main hospital in Basra are seeing as many as 340 cases a day. Ms Taveau said: "The coalition forces seem to be completely unable to restrain the looters or impose any sort of controls on the mobs that now govern the streets.
"This inaction by the occupying powers is in violation of the Geneva Conventions, which explicitly state that medical establishments must be protected, the wounded and sick must be the object of particular protection and respect."