Global Policy Forum

By Larry Kaplow and Robert W. Gee

A deadly explosion at a gas station Thursday revealed how far Iraq's economy and order have descended in recent weeks. An oil-rich country where gas usually sells for a few cents a gallon now has gas lines all over Baghdad. The horrific blast at a gas station killed at least four people and severely burned dozens. The wounded included boys clutching cans of fuel that have become precious as Iraq continues to suffer postwar shortages.

U.S. troops and Iraqi bystanders rushed to rescue people from the flames, where some victims had been trapped against a wall. Hospital officials reported more than 35 injured, many with life-threatening burns over most of their bodies. Four of the injured were boys as young as 12. Freed by weeks without school, boys now wait hours for fuel and then siphon it for customers at a roadside black market. Until a month ago, Iraq had plentiful working pumps and gas for about 4 cents a gallon. "They were carrying gas cans and running, and the cans exploded," said Wesam Jassim, a taxi driver whose car was badly damaged in the fire. "Some tried to escape, and others couldn't." The cause of the fire, in the poor Rahmaniya neighborhood, was unknown. Some speculated that people nearby had fired guns into the air to celebrate the return of electricity to their neighborhood. Others wondered if someone might have intentionally fired at one of the fuel tanks.

Relatives of the wounded searched for loved ones and expressed anger at the American troops for restraining their entry to the dangerous zone. U.S. troops fired into the air to turn back people rushing to the scene. At times the crowd of onlookers chanted, "America is the enemy of God." "I blame them because there is no security. No government," said Nooraddin Alwan, 40. The explosion underlined the rapid decline of an industry that Iraqis had taken for granted. This is a car culture in some ways similar to America, with good roads and multipump filling stations. With oil wells and refineries idled by the war, and many pumps out of service because of power outages, gas supplies are low. The postwar looting of city buses and a month without general phone service because of American bombing makes a car trip about the only way to check on relatives across town.

In recent days, motorists have drawn guns in anger amid the lines of hundreds of cars at filling stations. American troops have been asked repeatedly to help control the crowds. At some stations, U.S. forces have positioned tanks at the entrances to maintain order, but in most cases, U.S. soldiers have deferred the job as not part of their mission. In a typical scene Thursday, the manager of a gas station in the Mansour section of the capital shut down his pumps and fled an unruly crowd. He ran to a nearby house, where two friends manned the front gate with Kalashnikov rifles until the manager could sneak out a back door. Gas station managers put the blame for the crisis on the postwar lawlessness, with looting of tanker trucks and a lack of security for truck drivers and gas stations.

Iraqis regularly respond to the lawlessness by blaming U.S. troops for poor planning or intentional negligence. But many Iraqis worked with U.S. troops responding to Thursday's blast. One bystander said about 20 U.S. troops and 20 Iraqis were using Iraqi fire equipment and taking the injured to Iraqi ambulances, which were escorted at times by U.S. military vehicles. "Iraqis and Americans, we are working together," said Thamouz Khafeeg, 44, a nurse who helped carry away the burned. "It was miserable. I was crying and shouting. I couldn't control myself."

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