bad, but not really comparable in scale. And it's far from just "saddam's stuff" that is being looted:

"There were scenes of chaos as looters set about ripping the city's buildings apart for scrap.

Young men bent double under the weight of their findings struggled to carry scrap metal, air-conditioning units and barrels of fuel from the city.

The bridges leading into Basra, once the scene of a refugee exodus, were packed with traffic and queues of up to 30 cars formed at petrol stations as signs of panic-buying set in.

Sporadic gunfire could be heard in the streets and few British soldiers ventured out of their Warriors and Challenger 2 tanks.

Iraqis waved and smiled as the troops poured in but did not stop in their business of looting.

Behind them fires still burned from the shelling of the city and buildings could be seen smouldering.

"People in Iraq are no good, we have suffered too long," one man told me, adding: "Be careful."

Moments later, the area was fired upon as the distinctive crack of machine gun fire could be heard.