Concrete security wall to be built around Baghdad

The Iraqi defence ministry has begun the construction of a concrete wall around Baghdad, in an effort to prevent Daesh attacks, a military statement revealed yesterday.

“The security barrier around Baghdad will prevent terrorists from infiltrating the capital or smuggling explosives and car bombs to target innocent civilians,” Lieutenant-General Abdul Ameer Al-Shammari, head of the Baghdad Operations Command, said in a statement.

According to the statement, the government will begin building the wall in Al-Subaihat, around 30 kilometres to the west of the capital, so as to isolate it from Fallujah, which is currently controlled by Daesh.

The preparatory work to construct the wall began on Monday.

Concrete walls surround a large number of districts in the Iraqi capital since the outbreak of violence between Sunnis and Shias began a decade ago.

Al-Shammari said some of the concrete walls will be dismantled from areas that are no longer under threat and will be used for the new fence along with surveillance camera and explosives detection devices.

However, the walls around the Green Zone, created by the US-led coalition forces that toppled the rule of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2003 are expected to remain.

Daesh seized large areas of northern Iraq and has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in the Iraqi capital over the past months.