Iraq's prime minister has called on the US military to halt building a barrier separating a Sunni enclave from surrounding Shia areas in Baghdad.
The US military announced last week that it was building a three-mile-long and 12-foot-tall concrete wall in Azamiyah, a Sunni stronghold in northern Baghdad whose residents have often been the victims of retaliatory mortar attacks by Shia militants following bombings usually blamed on Sunni insurgents.
In his first public comments on the issue, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said yesterday that he had ordered the construction to stop.came amid strong criticism of the wall.
US and Iraqi officials defended plans for the barrier as an effort to protect the neighbourhood, but residents and Sunni leaders complained it was a form of discrimination that would isolate the community. A large protest is due to take place today.
"I oppose the building of the wall and its construction will stop," Mr al-Maliki said during a joint news conference with the secretary-general of the Arab League. "There are other methods to protect neighbourhoods, but I should point out that the goal was not to separate, but to protect."
The prime minister is beginning a regional tour to shore up support from mostly Sunni Arab nations for his Shia-dominated government as sectarian violence persists despite a nearly 10-week-old security crackdown.