Work on Baghdad wall continues as violence kills 48 (2nd Roundup)

Apr 23, 2007, 14:43 GMT

Baghdad - The construction of a three-mile wall around a Sunni neighbourhood in Baghdad continued Monday, the military spokesman for the Iraqi government said, despite Premier Nuri al- Maliki's opposition to the plan.

Meanwhile, four bombings across Iraq killed at least 48 people and wounded scores of others as the US military and Iraqi police continued in their attempts to quell violence.

Military spokesman Qassem Atta confirmed the US military's plan to form a 3.5-metre-high concrete wall to enclose Adhamiya district, where tit-for-tat sectarian violence is threatening to spiral out of control. He repeated that it was not the only wall.

Witnesses said Monday that construction was indeed continuing under the guard of US soldiers. The area is currently sealed off, they said.

Iraqi media also reported a rowdy demonstration in Adhamiya, where more than 1,000 residents marched from Abu-Hanifa mosque, one of the capital's largest, across the streets of central Baghdad, chanting against the so-called Great Wall of Adhamiya.

Men, women and even school students carried banners that described the wall as separatist, sectarian and a 'large prison' for the people of Adhamiya.

In contrast, Atta insisted that Iraqis had requested that walls be erected between neighbourhoods for security considerations, and so the work on the Adhamiya wall among others would continue, he told Iraqiya state television.

Atta also said that the defence minister had a 'firm opinion' about the walls, saying that they were 'temporary.'

Atta's statements came only a day after al-Maliki had openly called for a halt to the wall of separation, saying he opposed it.

Anger was sparked among citizens and some politicians in Baghdad after local and international news sources circulated the report of the wall that is expected to divide notorious neighbourhoods - and in turn Baghdad itself.

Atta had told the press that building such and similar walls across Baghdad was part of a security plan enacted on February 14 in an effort to quell ongoing violence in the city.

The planned walls are expected to reduce the traffic of armed militants between neighbourhoods. Each wall would have two access points only.

The Adhamiya wall's construction had already begun on April 10.

According to Britain's The Guardian, which blew the whistle on the construction last Saturday, US paratroopers from Camp Taji, some 30 kilometres to the north of Baghdad, transported 'stacks of huge (6,300-kilogram) concrete barriers' in trucks into the capital.

'Cranes, protected by tanks, winched them into place. Building has continued every night since,' the newspaper report read.

And according to Atta, similar constructions are to follow and are expected to appear in areas like Rasafa and Karakh.

Sunnis are increasingly concentrating to the west of the Tigris in Baghdad, while Shiites flee to the east.

Meanwhile, violence continued to rage across the nation amid all the arguments about the wall.

In Baghdad alone, two attacks rocked Karada-Mariam district, only several metres away from Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, where the government's buildings and the US embassy are located.

In one incident, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant, killing eight people and wounding 14 others. A local police source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the blast as 'intense.'

Witnesses said the explosion caused serious damage to the restaurant, nearby buildings and several parked vehicles. Local security forces, with the help of the US military, cordoned off the site.

Several minutes after the first bombing, another blast rocked the same district, killing one civilian and wounding two others, according to local police and witnesses.

The attack occurred in front of the Iranian embassy, and around 22 cars caught fire as a result, the Voices of Iraq news agency reported.

The blast was believed to have been caused by a car bomb, detonated by remote control.

Near Ramadi, in the western Anbar province, at least 19 were killed and more than 30 wounded in three car bombings, pan-Arab al- Arabiya news channel reported.

In Sunni-dominated Baquba, 60 kilometres north-east of Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle in front of a police station, killing 10 people and wounding 10 more, security sources said.

A number of police officers were reported to be among the dead.

A car bomb in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul killed 10 people and wounded 18 others, local authorities said.

The attack targeted the headquarters of the Kurdish Democratic Party, led by Masoud Barazani, in the area known as Tal.

Initial news reports said a suicide bomber was behind the Mosul attack.

The US military said that US soldiers arrested 19 suspected militants Monday during raids in western Iraq and to the north of Baghdad.