BAGHDAD, 5 May 2003 — Hundreds of unarmed Iraqi police returned to Baghdad streets yesterday 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 9, the day US troops toppled Saddam Hussein, setting off a wave of thieving 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 yesterday, 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. “Today is the first day for trying to get the police back to re-establish law and order in the streets,” Phillip Hall, a US administration officer, said at the Police Academy.

Hall told reporters many police, traffic police and firemen had responded to the US-led civilian administration’s call and reclaimed their old jobs.

A US Army officer said the military was helping to get the police force back on its feet. Regular Iraqi patrols were being launched and US military police would soon join some of them.

Traffic police carry no weapons, but regular police officers are armed with pistols or assault rifles.

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,” policeman Ali Rahim said. “They did not appoint a known Iraqi person to run things.”

Baghdad’s new police chief resigned on Saturday in a setback to US efforts to revitalize the force.

US forces spokesman Lt. Col. Alan King quoted police chief Zuhir Al-Naimi as saying he wanted to make way for a younger man. No other explanation was given for the resignation of a man appointed only on April 24.

A 10-nation force led by the United States, Britain and Poland plans to deploy in Iraq by the end of this month to try to stabilize a country rocked by lawlessness.

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 afterward.