U.S. and Iraqi forces wall off threats in Sadr City

By Missy Ryan

SADR CITY, Iraq (Reuters) - Late into the night, a crane drops towering slabs of concrete into place, the earth shaking as U.S. and Iraqi forces slowly wall off the slum that was Baghdad's last sanctuary for feared Shi'ite militants.

Iraqis gather just beyond the pool of light, looking on from the darkness of the largely Shi'ite area that until several months ago lived in the grip of Mehdi Army militiamen loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

This third wall that will encircle Sadr City, home to 2 million people in northeastern Baghdad, is part of the U.S. and Iraqi effort to solidify the sharp drop in violence that followed fierce fighting there this year.

"There is no Mehdi Army here. There is only the Iraqi Army," said Lieutenant Colonel Yahya Rasoul Abdullah, who heads an Iraqi army unit in southern Sadr City.

"There is only one language -- the language of the law."

Hundreds were killed beginning in March as Iraqi and U.S. forces battled Sadr's Mehdi Army, which the United States blamed for rocket and mortar attacks on U.S. and Iraqi government headquarters in central Baghdad's Green Zone.

The fighting in Sadr City was one front of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's crackdown on defiant Shi'ite militias.

A May 10 ceasefire ended the fighting in Sadr City and, 10 days later, Iraqi troops pushed deep into the slum unopposed.

Fighting had been particularly fierce then, and U.S. forces built a 12-foot (3.5-metre) security wall stretching more than 3 km (2 miles) across Sadr City.

Such security walls, designed to stop suicide bombers and slow the traffic of weapons, have brought bitter debate where they have been erected around markets, public places and entire neighbourhoods across Baghdad.

Some Iraqis bridle at the idea of such barriers, which cause traffic jams and can suffocate nearby businesses, saying they amount to giant prisons.

Others call them a necessary evil that has contributed to the marked improvements across Iraq, where violence has dropped to its lowest levels since 2004.

Sadr City, where attacks have dwindled to several a week in the southern portion of the city patrolled by U.S. forces, is today a far cry from what it was months ago.

The streets teem with cars and commerce, and a central market with its juice and clothes vendors bustles even on the holy day, Friday. Children find respite from the searing summer heat in the fountains in refurbished parks.

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