Baghdad's concrete walls divide but protect

By David Clarke

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Walls are an emotive issue in Baghdad. Towering concrete barriers have mushroomed across Iraq's capital, put up by U.S. forces striving to cripple Sunni and Shi'ite militants.

Critics argue the walls divide communities, stifle economic activity, imprison residents and only widen the sectarian rifts that remain at the root of Iraq's political gridlock.

Proponents say walls protect single sect or mixed neighborhoods alike, allow the security forces to choke off insurgent groups, make people feel safer and permit residents to start policing their own streets.

For Um Ali, a shopkeeper in the mainly Sunni Arab district of Qadissiya, the high concrete blast walls make it difficult to move around and new checkpoints add hours to journeys.

But at the same time the measures have provided extra security. As a Shi'ite in a Sunni area she had pondered fleeing regular sectarian attacks but plans to stay for now.

"Of course it's better. You know how I used to feel?" she said. "I feel safer now."

She said gunmen pulled up in cars and targeted Shi'ite-owned stores on the main shopping street. She only opened her shop for a few hours a day and then enlisted a partner to look after it.

But the U.S. walls and checkpoints have stopped the gunmen. Now Um Ali opens her stationery store whenever she wants.

The ubiquitous, forbidding grey blast walls -- some made of hundreds of 6-tonne, 12-foot-high, five-foot-wide concrete blocks known as "T-walls" -- encircle compounds and snake round Baghdad districts.

Some shield whole districts from view while others, called "Colorados", allow a glimpse of houses and apartment blocks.

"WE WANT CONCRETE"

U.S. Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Chesney is the commander of 1st Battalion 64th Armor Regiment responsible for bringing security to some of the most turbulent parts of western Baghdad.

Chesney sees the temporary, concrete walls his battalion has erected as distinct, each one is in place for different reasons, based on specific local circumstances.

The 12-foot-high concrete wall going up around the district of Khadra is designed to stop al Qaeda bringing in supplies from outside Baghdad while isolating the battleground so U.S. and Iraqi forces can tackle the Islamist militants still there.

"We are walling in Khadra. It's the end of the ratlines for al Qaeda and a natural staging point for them. Now they're coming up against concrete," he said.