Trade hit as transport network is crippled

IRAQ’S transport network has practically come to a halt because of a deterioration in security and the closure of main roads by US forces, shippers and merchants said yesterday.

They said trade and economic activity had slowed down sharply.

"Baghdad has been effectively isolated," said Muzahim al-Azzawi, executive manager of Gezairi Transport.

He said truck movement had mostly stopped on the western roads to Jordan and Syria, and that a bridge on the only road left open to Baghdad from the south was now too weak to cross because of war damage and recent sabotage.

The western route leading to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon accounts for an estimated 70 per cent of Iraqi shipments.

"A few trucks try to cross now and then, but the problem is that the resistance stops them on suspicion that they are carrying supplies for Americans," Mr Azzawi said.

Iraqi civilian passenger movement has also been disrupted by violence and more people have been opting to fly, taking planes from Baghdad airport that perform sharp evasive manoeuvres to escape possible shoulder-fired rocket attacks.

Shippers said the only remaining road to Turkey was dangerous and the border was hard to cross.

Iraq’s imports come mostly from the west and the south, which has experienced a violent Shiite insurgency after relative postwar calm.

US forces have also closed the main road leading to the city of Mosul, a trading post with Syria. Another southern road leading from Baghdad to the port city of Basra was closed after insurgents blew up bridges over it.

Business is also being hurt.A salesman at Issam car dealership said the company had been unable to import any cars over the last two weeks.