US building 'security wall' in Baghdad's Sadr City

US forces hope that the wall will reduce militia attacks, allow for reconstruction.

By Arthur Bright

posted April 18, 2008 at 10:15 am EDT

In the face of ongoing confrontations between US-Iraqi forces and Shiite militias in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, US forces began work this week on a concrete barrier to protect against militia intrusions. Other neighborhoods with such walls have seen marked improvement in the security situation, though some residents credit anti-Al Qaeda groups, which have been targeted by suicide bombers this week.

The New York Times reports that US forces hope that the huge concrete wall will slow the southward spread of militia fighters from the heart of the heavily Shiite neighborhood, which has been a combat zone for the past several weeks as US and Iraqi forces fight members of Moqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army.

The construction, which began Tuesday night, is intended to turn the southern quarter of Sadr City near the international Green Zone into a protected enclave, secured by Iraqi and American forces, where the Iraqi government can undertake reconstruction efforts.

"You can't really repair anything that is broken until you establish security," said Lt. Col. Dan Barnett, commander of the First Squadron, Second Stryker Cavalry Regiment. "A wall that isolates those who would continue to attack the Iraqi Army and coalition forces can create security conditions that they can go in and rebuild."

On Wednesday night, huge cranes slowly lifted heavy concrete blocks into place under a moonless sky. The barriers were implanted on Al Quds Street, a major thoroughfare that separates the Tharwa and Jamilla districts to the south from the heart of Sadr City to the north. ...

Many of the Shiite militias that the American and Iraqi forces have been battling in the Tharwa area of Sadr City in the past several weeks have been infiltrating from the north. Al Quds Street has become a porous demarcation line between the American- and Iraqi-protected area to the south and the militia-controlled area to the north.

US forces hope that the Iraqi government will be able to restore basic utilities such as water, electricity, and garbage collection to the neighborhood if the wall fulfills its purpose. The Times notes that the US has built other such walls in Baghdad, including around the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiyah last April, and while initially controversial, they have met with some success.

French international news channel France 24 reported last month that life for civilians in Adhamiyah has indeed improved from a year ago, according to one of France 24's civilian-journalist "observers." But the anonymous civilian journalist credits a different US initiative: anti-Al Qaeda "sahwas," or Awakening Councils – Sunnis united against Al Qaeda. He writes that where in March 2007 the streets of Adhamiyah were bullet-riddled and empty, security has improved so much that just a few weeks ago the neighborhood was holding public religious celebrations and people were freely moving about.

At that moment I felt safe and even if something happened and I died then I'd have died happy. The awakening members (Sahwa) were everywhere and I literally mean everywhere, you could find one in every square metre and there were also many checkpoints where everyone got searched. That's a great thing; I'm really thankful to them for providing the safety that we've been deprived for such a long time.

What I've seen in Adhamiya I'd call a success and the biggest achievement since the beginning of the war. I turned to my wife and said "Can you believe this? Would you believe me if I told you last year that Adhamiya would be like this?" and she said "I hope that soon we'll be sitting in Al-Alwia (a social club) at night with you asking me the same question." I just wish the situation was like this all over Baghdad but unfortunately it's not, so far."

The Christian Science Monitor reports, however, that members of the Awakening Councils have become targets this week, indicating that Al Qaeda in Iraq, though weakened, is still a security threat. Most noteworthily, a suicide bomber killed at least 50 people at a funeral Thursday for two brothers who had joined the council in Albu Mohammed, 90 miles north of Baghdad. Many of the mourners were believed to be sympathetic to anti-Al Qaeda groups.

The bombings this week follow an audio statement from the Sunni extremist umbrella organization the Islamic State of Iraq, which many analysts say was founded by Al Qaeda in Iraq. It urged Iraqis to turn against the Awakening Councils, which the US now calls "Sons of Iraq."

Iraqi analysts said it should surprise no one that Al Qaeda in Iraq would try to take advantage of the Americans' focus on the Shiite militias. But some also warned against blaming Al Qaeda alone for this week's bombings.

"Al Qaeda [in Iraq] is weakened now, but they are not finished," says Thafer al-Ani, a member of the Iraq parliament from the Sunni Iraqi Accord Front. "Their numbers became less, but they still have the capability to destabilize the security situation. They have the tactics, the suicide people," he adds, "and they know to exploit the absence of national reconciliation in the hopes of turning the population back towards them."

This week's suicide bombings in Iraq are only the latest in what has become a global trend. The Washington Post reports that 2007 marked a 25-year high in suicide attacks, with 658 around the world – including 542 in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The large number of attacks – more than double the number in any of the past 25 years – reflects a trend that has surprised and worried U.S. intelligence and military analysts.

More than four-fifths of the suicide bombings over that period have occurred in the past seven years, the data show. The bombings have spread to dozens of countries on five continents, killed more than 21,350 people and injured about 50,000 since 1983, when a landmark attack blew up the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.

Today is the 25-year anniversary of that attack, the first of a series of large suicide bombings targeting Americans overseas.

The Post notes that intelligence officials say that at least two-thirds of all suicide bombings since 1983 have targeted American policy goals.