The United States military intends to proceed with its plan to erect concrete walls around Baghdad hot spots, the military said, even as one such experiment in a dangerous Sunni enclave faces criticism.
Brigadier General John Campbell, a top military commander in Baghdad, said these walls aimed to protect the people from ”terrorists” and the ”intent is not to divide the city along sectarian lines”.
Since April 10, US forces have been constructing a 5km wall made of six-tonne concrete sections around Baghdad’s notorious Sunni district of Adhamiyah.
The wall is designed to prevent Shi’ite death squads from launching attacks to drive out the Sunnis from the district, and to prevent Sunni insurgents from using the pocket as a base for raids and bombing runs into Shiite areas.
But the structure has angered residents, who accuse the military of hardening the city’s already bitter sectarian divisions.
Campbell said several such ”gated communities” would be formed but they were a temporary security tactic.
”The intent is to provide a more secured neighbourhood for people who live in selected neighbourhoods,” he said in a statement issued by the military late on Saturday.
”Some of the people who I have talked to have had favourable comments about it, and they want us to build some of them faster.”
Campbell said such barriers were being erected even around marketplaces — regular targets of bombers — and set up after consultation with Iraqi forces and local leaders.
Such a decision is ”based on the ground commander working with Iraqi security forces and also working with the community in those different neighbourhoods”, Campbell said.
”We’ve selected communities that have seen an increase in violence, a heightened violence, and we’re protecting some of those communities with walls,” he said.
”Where they exist, we consult with the area district advisory councils and neighbourhood advisory councils. We work in conjunction with them. They represent the people of those neighbourhoods.”
Campbell said security forces would wait and see as to how this tactic works.
”We’ll learn from the ones we’re putting in and we’ll adjust, as necessary,” he said.
”We’ll take feedback from the local communities. If we find that they’re not doing what they’re intended to do, we’ll certainly move them. We’ll add where we have to.” — AFP
