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| Iraq | |
| Barriers to be off Baghdad streets by 2009 | |
| 2009-04-17 | |
“We have received instructions from the prime minister (Nuri al-Maliki) that all concrete barriers should be removed from the streets of Baghdad by the end of 2009,” Major General Qassim Atta, the Baghdad security spokesman, told AFP. “There were 88 streets closed (at the height of the fighting), and by now we have succeeded in opening 75 percent of them,” he said. Atta added that “measures will be taken to protect the streets after they have been opened,” without making mention of the heavily-fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad that is home to the Iraqi government and US embassy. He also insisted that the government, apart from the walls and T-wall anti-blast barriers, would remove many of the checkpoints which today guard nearly every intersection in the capital. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |