Blast Walls: Baghdad Iraq

August 22 2009

AP – Workers place concrete blast walls in front of the Iraqi foreign ministry in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday

Iraqis begin restoring concrete walls in Baghdad

Workers used giant cranes to raise concrete walls around the blast-scarred Foreign Ministry and other government buildings on Saturday, as Iraqi authorities sought to bolster security after suicide truck bombings that killed scores in Baghdad.

The decision to reinforce vital institutions is a sharp reversal of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's desire to remove the barriers as part of his efforts to make life more normal for war-weary Iraqis before January's national elections............

Occupied and Controlled by Us now being Occupied and Controlled by their own, and We Tore That Lid Off The Pandora's Box!!

Baghdad City of Walls

Baghdad is more divided than ever - a short film courtesy of Guardian Films



In the first of Ghaith Abdul-Ahad's extraordinary series of films to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, he investigates the claims that the US military surge is bringing stability to Iraq. By travelling through the heart of Baghdad he exposes how, by enclosing the Sunni and Shia populations behind 12ft walls, the surge has left the city more divided and desperate than ever.

Journey to Baghdad killing fields
Is the surge working? City of Walls Part 2 - a short film courtesy of Guardian Films


On the fifth anniversary of the US/British-led invasion of Iraq, the Guardian's award-winning foreign correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad has teamed up with ITV News to bring us a series of extraordinary films for the ITV News and guardian.co.uk. In these unprecedented films he, as an Iraqi, goes where foreign journalists can no longer go - to the heart of Baghdad's most dangerous sectarian zones. He uncovers Iraq's own killing fields where only the "killers and the killed" can visit; and he reveals the desperate truth of the trafficked children of Iraq.

If you were forced to live like this, What Would You Do!