At least 25 people were injured in the rampages. The front windows of some 200 downtown stores were shattered, with everything from loose paper to shoes littering the outside sidewalks.

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, 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 US troops rolled in Wednesday 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 widespread public expressions of joy at the Saddam regime's collapse, the chaos has left some merchants longing for the days of the 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 said.

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

Meshal Shahi, 37, heaped scorn on the US 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 said.

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

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) here, 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 carry out operations.

"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.

US 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," said Masaad Bibo, 32.

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

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

Some of the merchants blamed the looting on the Shiites, who form a majority in Iraq but were repressed by Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime.

"The thieves and vandals all come from Saddam City," the million-strong Shiite slum on the capital's northern outskirts, said Mohammad as-Safa, 53, who runs an Arab fast food restaurant.

SPACE.WIRE