In Iraq's southern city of Basra, Al-Harith Hassan has been unable to withdraw his salary in dollars from the bank for the past three months. The Oil-rich Iraq is hardly short of dollars -- it has foreign currency reserves of more than $100 billion (93 billion euros). But Baghdad has been fighting a booming currency black market, imposing ever-tighter restrictions on the use of American bucks. "Local banks are handing us dollars in instalments due to the short of dollars. They only give us a fraction compared to our salaries," says the employee in the private oil sector. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES