BAGHDAD, Iraq – Under public pressure and with the ISIS threat largely gone from the city Baghdad has started removing checkpoints and concrete blast walls across the capital and many roads closed during the sectarian war a decade ago are now open.
The campaign that kicked off last year has so far removed 305 police and security checkpoints and over 1,000 concrete barriers in various parts of Baghdad.
Iraq’s interior ministry decided to clear the city from these road barriers acknowledging that the threat of ISIS and other groups has gone from Baghdad.
Residents of Baghdad welcome the move that has eased traffic.
“The current situation is better,” Rami Zaya, a shopkeeper told Rudaw. “They have reopened the roads and we in the market are doing better now.”
The checkpoints and blast walls that spread across Baghdad during the sectarian war of 2006-7 made the city notorious for its traffic.
Suha Abdulhamid, a Baghdad resident said that with the barriers gone she now feels free.
“They have reopened these roads,” she told Rudaw. “And this is very useful for us. We were trapped behind these walls for years. It’s been several years I haven’t been to areas near Mithaq walls because of the distant road I had to walk in order to get there.”
According to Saad Maan, the spokesperson of the Iraqi interior ministry, the Baghdad Operations Command is carrying out the campaign of removing the blast walls and checkpoints.
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