U.S. Walls Off Sunni Enclave In Baghdad
Military Says Barricade Is Necessary To Protect Sunnis Surrounded By Shiites
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When the wall is finished, the minority Sunni community of Azamiyah, on the eastern side of the Tigris River, will be gated, and traffic control points manned by Iraqi soldiers will be the only entries, the military said.
"Shiites are coming in and hitting Sunnis, and Sunnis are retaliating across the street," said Capt. Scott McLearn, of the U.S. 407th Brigade Support Battalion, which began the project April 10 and is working "almost nightly until the wall is complete," the statement said.
It said the concrete wall, including barriers as tall as 12 feet, "is one of the centerpieces of a new strategy by coalition and Iraqi forces to break the cycle of sectarian violence" in Baghdad.
As the wall went up, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates continued his surprise trip to Iraq by hammering home his message that the U.S. was not interested in an open-ended presence in the country.
"Our commitment to Iraq is long-term, but it its not a commitment to having our young men and women patrolling Iraq's streets open-endedly," Gates said at a news conference in Baghdad.
Gates said he encouraged the Iraqis to pass legislation on political reconciliation and the sharing of oil revenues among the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. He told them whether they take action on these measures will be taken into consideration when he and the commanders review the military buildup later this summer.
Gates said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki assured him that he and the governing council want to "work very hard" to bring about these changes, but also reminded Gates that the council is an independent body.
But as the U.S. troops rushed to build a wall around Sunnis in the middle of Baghdad, little evidence of Iraq's various sects beginning to accept each other was to be found on the streets of the capital city.
U.S. and Iraqi forces have long erected cement barriers around marketplaces and coalition bases and outposts in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities such as Ramadi in an effort to prevent attacks, including suicide car bombs.
American forces also have constructed huge sand barriers around towns such as Tal Afar, an insurgent stronghold near the Syrian border.
There has been little sign, however, of the U.S. military using concrete barriers to divide Baghdad neighborhoods by sect, but at least one similar construction has been reported in the capital.
U.S. Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, the top spokesman for coalition forces in Iraq, was quoted as saying Wednesday that he was unaware of any effort to build a wall dividing Shiite and Sunni enclaves in Baghdad and that such a tactic was not a policy of the Baghdad security plan.
"We have no intent to build gated communities in Baghdad," Stars and Stripes, the U.S. Department of Defense-authorized daily newspaper, quoted Caldwell as saying. "Our goal is to unify Baghdad, not subdivide it into separate (enclaves)."
Currently, the U.S. strategy for stabilizing Iraq involves getting Iraqis to reconcile and support the democratically elected Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad, and a security plan in the capital that calls for 28,000 additional American troops and thousands of Iraqi soldiers.
The Azamiyah barrier will allow authorities to screen people entering and leaving the area of northern Baghdad "while keeping death squads and militia groups out," the U.S. military statement said.
Security in the three Shiite communities on the other side of the wall also will be stepped up, and the barrier is expected to make it harder for insurgents to plant roadside bombs in the area targeting coalition forces, the military said.
The construction work by the U.S. military involves flatbed trucks carrying concrete barriers weighing 14,000 pounds. Operating under bright lights, the cranes lift the barriers into place while being protected by U.S. tanks.
As work continued Friday, the day of worship in mostly Muslim Iraq, several Sunnis living in Azamiyah welcomed the effort to improve their security, but said the wall was another sign of the deep hostility between Sunnis and Shiites.
"It is good from one hand to curb violence and have control of terrorists. But it's bad on the other hand to be separated from others. We should live in one area like brothers, not be separated from one another," said Bashar Abdul Latif, a 45-year-old teacher.
"I don't think this wall will solve the city's serious security problems," said Ahmed Abdul-Sattar, 35, a government worker. "It will only increase the separation between our people, which has been made so much worse by the war."
In other developments:
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The secrets of tennis legend 
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See all 210 CommentsPosted by j-whitman at 03:51 PM : Apr 22, 2007
--j-whitman
Yeah I know, maybe we won't need to worry about it, maybe the Chinese have already successfully poisioned us all! LOL
The damage Bush has done to our world & our country far exceeds Nixon & LBJ.
Posted by j-whitman at 03:41 PM : Apr 22, 2007
--j-whitman
Even if that is true, people still need to be smart, that point has been made, everybody got the message loud and clear on Pres. Bush, what people don't want to do is destroy the U.S. in the process, or making matters worst for the next administration, the hole we need to climb out of is deep enough don't you think, we don't need to dig it any deeper!
Condi Rice & this administration ignored all intell on al Quida attacking our counry,, twisted intel to take us to war ---- Terrorism has grown, morphed & has spread throughout Europe & Africa.
The damage Bush has done to our world & our country far exceeds Nixon & LBJ.
Posted by j-whitman at 03:32 PM : Apr 22, 2007
--j-whitman
President Bush has a stated goal of keeping the terrorist busy and tied down in Iraq so the terrorist don't have time or are too busy to attack us here in the U.S.. Since the U.S. has not seen a terrorist attack since 9/11, you have to give Pres. Bush credit on that account. I don't like extremes, and while Pres. Bush is slam dunked in a vicious way and most of the time unfairly, he has good points too.
Posted by j-whitman at 03:25 PM : Apr 22, 2007
--j-whitman
This is true for every U.S. relationship with every government. Many of the U.S. military alliances are economic competitors and in some cases even economic enemies! While the U.S. wishes every government economic success, thats only up to a point, and they feel the same about all of their relationships as well! The world is very complex and is not black and white but many shades of grey!
Posted by j-whitman at 03:18 PM : Apr 22, 2007
--j-whitman
The main problem with Iran is history, posture, credibility and attitude! In the context of posture, Iran is currently at odds with the U.N. and is being sanctioned by 2 unanimous U.N. votes with more sanctions pending. In the context of credibility, Iran let the UK Sailors invade their waters 6 times but decided to capture them on the 7th and there are disputes even now if the Royal Navy Sailors were ever in Iranian waters. Iran is financing Hezzbolla and Hamas and Hamas is currently calling for an offensive against Isreal, to be financed by Iran of course. Iran is wrong in so many areas, that even when Iran may be right no one will believe Iran and this touches on credibility and Irans bad history. Posture and attitude issues are how Irans responds to the worlds concerns and Iran responds defiantly, arrogantly and with lies and subversive deception that isn't fooling anybody!
-- Keep your eye on the UAE, they are our friends only in investing (if you like dealing with the government who attacked us on 9/11 & is still funding terrorists) & Turkey who will also cause problems.
Our 16 intelligence agencies still don't have any intel of Iran's supplying Iraq insurgents nor the Taliban,, What they do have is from people who we allow others to torture & has little credibility.
Posted by j-whitman at 02:54 PM : Apr 22, 2007
--j-whitman
Pres. Bush did initially blame Iraq for 9/11 but has since publicly corrected that, I heard him do so myself on TV, that didn't get much Press though!
Guess what ???? ----- Countries in the UAE are not only supplying the Taliban, they are sending soldiers funded by the UAE & trained in Iraq... Iran wants nothing to do with either Pakistan or Afaganistan
Posted by j-whitman at 02:36 PM : Apr 22, 2007
--j-whitman
It's more complicated than that, it's not easy to accuse an entire country when terrorist are operating out of that country. Proof has to be made that the countrys government was involved. This was the problem with the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.. Everyone kept trying to blame the Saudi's and it was the Saudi's but it wasn't the Saudi government and that's the problem, you can't accuse an entire nation unless it's Iran, who the U.S. has provided proof that elements of Irans government are supporting insurgents in Iraq! A lot of these problems are rooted in Iran which is the central bank of terror! Now Hamas wants to attack Israel again, the cycle of revenge never ends!
Guess what ???? ----- Countries in the UAE are not only supplying the Taliban, they are sending soldiers funded by the UAE & trained in Iraq... Iran wants nothing to do with either Pakistan or Afaganistan
Posted by toldyouso21 at 03:52 AM : Apr 22, 2007
--toldyouso21
Saddam opened Pandora's Box and got everything that popped out of it, that was his choice! Saddam had other options. When someone makes a choice, they get everything that comes with that choice, its a package, not isolated in my opinion, Saddams bad choices caused all of this and Saddam should have chosen better, that's life! If you rob a bank and get shot by the Police, you can't complain and sue the Police, you didn't have to go there! It's really that simple for me.
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