Iraq says modifying Baghdad neighbourhood wall

By Aseel Kami

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq has modified a U.S. military plan to protect a Sunni enclave in Baghdad with high concrete walls, and is using barbed wire and smaller cement barriers instead, an Iraqi military spokesman said on Wednesday.

The move to alter the controversial project follows an order from Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to halt construction of the 5-km (3-mile) wall around Adhamiya, a Sunni Arab area surrounded on three sides by Shi'ite communities.

Residents have complained bitterly that the walls, up to 12 feet (3.5 metres) tall, would isolate them from other communities and sharpen sectarian tensions.

On Wednesday, anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr slammed the U.S. plan as a "sectarian" and "racist" project.

"We have sought other substitutes such as barbed wire, sand walls and small concrete barriers," said Brigadier-General Qassim Moussawi, spokesman for a U.S.-backed security crackdown in Baghdad.

"We immediately started implementing the order of the prime minister three days ago."

U.S. military spokesman Rear Admiral Mark Fox said on Monday that the erection of barriers around Baghdad's markets and neighbourhoods was approved by Iraq's government and that it was up to the Iraqis to make modifications.

But neither Fox nor U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker at a separate news conference on Monday would say if work would stop.