Maliki orders halt to wall around Adhamiyah

Above: A night vision photo of a paratrooper from the 407th Brigade Support Battalion as he unstraps several 14,000-pound concrete barriers for erection around Adhamiyah.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Sunday that he has ordered a halt to the construction of a barrier that would separate a Sunni enclave from surrounding Shiite areas in Baghdad, saying there are other ways to protect the neighborhood.

The announcement came amid fierce criticism at home over the project and while the beleaguered Shiite leader was in Cairo, Egypt, to drum up support from mostly Sunni Arab nations for his efforts to stop the rampant sectarian violence in his country...

"I oppose the building of the wall and its construction will stop," al-Maliki told reporters during a joint news conference with the Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa in Cairo, Egypt. "There are other methods to protect neighborhoods."

Read the rest at the International Herald Tribune

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