Life In Baghdad Gradually Returning To Normal

Life in Baghdad is slowly getting back to normal, Mohammad Mohsin al-Zubeidi, head of the city's interim administration, told journalists.

He said that domestic gas bottles are now being distributed downtown, telephone communications have been restored in three of the city's districts, electricity supplies are resuming, and repair work is in hand at water supply facilities. Communal services have started cleaning up the city of rubbish and debris.

Through the only functioning radio station in Baghdad, al-Zubeidi said, the interim administration regularly calls on all civil servants and personnel of communal services to report at work. "We are also asking shop and market owners to open their stalls," the city head said.

Al-Zubeidi said the interim administration is working hand in glove with the American military command. "Every day," he indicated, "we meet to discuss plans of further work." "American army units," al-Zubeidi said, "at our request have taken over protection of hospitals, banks, the power station, water supply facilities, and the oil refinery. American soldiers, together with Iraqi police, patrol city streets."