In Baghdad, the American Army Erects Walls Between Communities
By Rémy Ourdan
Le Monde

Wednesday 16 August 2006

The American and Iraqi armies began construction of a wall encircling Al-Dora, a southern Baghdad neighborhood, on Tuesday, August 15. Soldiers positioned prefabricated concrete barriers "to prevent terrorists from getting in," according to the American Army.

Although Al-Dora is a vast mixed neighborhood, the operation in this specific case consists of isolating an area inhabited mostly by Sunnis in order to protect it from Shiite militia incursions. Since Baghdad has been prey to civil war and transfers have been occurring between Shiite and Sunni populations, Al-Dora has been one of the neighborhoods most affected by inter-community violence.

Acknowledging the failure of the "Forward Together" security plan launched in June, the American Army and Iraqi security forces unveiled a new strategy August 11 that consists of separating Baghdad neighborhoods according to sectarian criteria. "We shall concentrate ourselves on sectarian borders, go into those sectors, clean them out, install security forces, bring economic aid, and work with local leaders so people feel safe," explained the multinational force commandant, American General George Casey. The objective is "to clean up Baghdad before Ramadan," the end of September.

"Popular Defense Committees"

The Al-Dora neighborhood, where both Sunnis linked to the Iraqi guerrilla movement and Shiite militias operate, was the first to be targeted by this strategy. Tuesday, while the first concrete barriers were being positioned, the American Army, which had sealed the area since August 7th, seemed satisfied with the results of the first week of operations: "Before, we'd find twenty-five explosive contraptions a week in Dora. We only found four of them this week. That's a success."

Marking their defiance in the face of the security plan, two Shiite movements, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the mainstay of the coalition in power, and the factions of the imam Moqtada al-Sadr, opposed to the American-Iraqi alliance, created "popular defense committees" Tuesday in the Shiite holy city of Nadjaf, after an attack that took place August 10 in front of the Imam Ali shrine.

The two movements already have militias, the Badr Brigade for SCIRI and the Mahdi Army for Moqtada al-Sadr. They want to spread their "committees" to Baghdad and throughout Iraq in order to protect the Shiite population from Sunni guerrilla attacks.

The American Army recently violently attacked the Mahdi Army in a suburb of Sadr City in Baghdad, including recourse to air power. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, opposed to the creation of militias, condemned the American raid. Impotent, he seems caught in the cross-fire.

And while the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, continues to assert that he "does not believe a civil war is unfolding in Iraq," the guardians of public order erect walls.



This was reported by French Newspaper Le Monde and translated
English Link