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"I've been here since 6 a.m.," he said Sunday. "If I'm lucky, I'll get to the end of the line by sunset. I actually think I might end up spending the night here."

This is the capital of what should be one of the world's great oil producers, but corruption and insurgent attacks have Iraqis mired in their worst fuel shortage since Saddam Hussein was ousted, with black market gasoline costing as much as $4 a gallon.

The official price is $1 a gallon, but the fuel is often unavailable, forcing most Iraqi drivers to shell out the higher price to streetside vendors or wait in long lines at gas stations.

The shortage affects other petroleum products too. A cylinder of cooking gas costs about $18 on the black market -- double the price a few months ago.

All that causes ripple effects that compound problems facing an Iraqi public weary of bloodshed, sectarian strife, the presence of U.S.-led forces and the government's inability to restore peace.

Taxi drivers have quadrupled their fares. Higher delivery costs for food and other essentials are passed on to consumers -- many already living on the margin.

"We're going to switch to a small kerosene stove instead," housewife Amaal Ahmed Jabbar said after paying premium prices for cooking fuel.

Afghan fighting kills 30; Plan to protect schools announced

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Fighting in Afghanistan left at least 25 insurgents and five Afghan security forces dead, officials said Sunday. Defying the spike in violence, Afghan officials announced plans to thwart attacks on schools, which have killed 41 students and teachers and destroyed more than 140 schools in the last year. Rebel violence has soared during the past year, leading to the heaviest fighting since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban regime.

In the country's south and east, NATO- and U.S.-led troops are pursuing a fierce campaign against insurgents to extend the reach of Afghanistan's central government.

In eastern Paktika province, along the Pakistan border, insurgents attacked an Afghan army post Sunday, an operation that left five soldiers and at least 18 militants dead, the U.S.-led coalition said. Six Afghan soldiers were hurt, three seriously, before the attackers were fended off by mortar fire from nearby military bases.

Coalition soldiers were embedded with the Afghan troops but said they suffered no casualties.

In the southern Helmand province, police on Saturday killed six Taliban militants and wounded four, said Ghulam Rasool, the district police chief. The clash continued Sunday and three officers were wounded, he said.

In the capital, Education Minister Mohammed Hareef Atmaf announced the school safety plan Sunday, noting that insurgents burned 144 schools to the ground during the past year to discredit the government's ability to build a future for Afghanistan.<