U.S. Military Building Baghdad Wall

April 29, 2007

The U.S. military is constructing a 3-mile, 12-foot high concrete wall around selected neighborhoods in Baghdad, saying it is "protecting people from sectarian violence."

The military announced the plan last week and declared it will be completed in the Azamiyah neighborhood by the end of April. It also announced that other similar barriers would soon be built in other neighborhoods.

The Iraqi people living in the Azamiyah neighborhood immediately protested the wall, saying the government was forcibly dividing the population

"Surrounding our neighbourhood with concrete barriers will make it clear that when we're out of our area we're going to be in danger. We're being forced to live inside just one area. Our lives will have to be limited to a few square kilometres of houses and shops," said Khadija Kubaissy, 52, a resident of Adhamiyah district.

Abu Ahmed, an Iraqi resistance fighter, said that the construction of concrete barriers would not stop them fighting US troops and those who support them. "They want to divide the country by sects and also they have this idea that by isolating districts it will make it easier to catch Muslim fighters. The government is deeply wrong because it will just make us stronger," he said.

Popular cleric Muqtada al-Sadr strongly condemned construction of the wall and called for demonstrations against the plan as a sign of "the evil will" of American "occupiers." In the statement, al-Sadr said the protests showed that Iraqis reject "the sectarian, racist and unjust wall that seeks to divide" Sunnis and Shiites.