U.S. walling in Sunni Adhamiyah neighborhood in Baghdad

In this night-vision photo, an Iraqi contractor attaches chains to a huge 14,000 pound concrete barrier so that a crane can lift it into place alongside a road in Adhamiyah on April 10. The barriers will wall in the new "gated community" of Adhamiyah.

BAGHDAD — A U.S. military brigade is constructing a 3-mile-long concrete wall to cut off one of the capital's most restive Sunni Arab districts from the Shiite Muslim neighborhoods that surround it, raising concern about the further Balkanization of Iraq's most populous and violent city.

U.S. commanders in northern Baghdad said the 12-foot-high barrier would make it more difficult for suicide bombers to strike and for death squads and militia fighters from sectarian factions to attack one another and then slip back to their home turf. Construction began April 10 and is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

Although Baghdad is replete with blast walls, checkpoints and other temporary barriers, including a massive wall around the Green Zone, the barrier being constructed in Adhamiya would be the first to be based in essence on sectarian considerations.

Read the rest at the LA TImes

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