Iraq plans wall around Baghdad to stop terrorist attacks

Iraq has announced the construction of a new wall around Baghdad, while removing many of the internal barriers set up in the last several years.

The move followed a series of bomb blasts on Tuesday that killed six people and wounded more than two dozen in the city.

"The security barrier around Baghdad will prevent terrorists from infiltrating the capital or smuggling explosives and car bombs to target innocent civilians," said Lieutenant-General Abdul Ameer al-Shammari, head of Baghdad Operations Command, in a statement on the defence ministry website.

The government will begin building the wall in the area of al-Subaihat, around 30km to the west of the capital, so as to isolate it from Fallujah, which is currently controlled by the Islamic State (IS) group.

Shammari added that many of the concrete barriers which currently blocked off areas within Baghdad - placed at the height of sectarian violence in the mid-2000s - would be dismantled and added to the new wall.

However, barriers around the Green Zone - a protected area in the capital erected by the US occupation in 2003 and inhabited by politicians and diplomats - would remain in place.

At least two civilians died and five others were injured when a bomb went off close to a number of workshops in Baghdad’s eastern district of al-Talebiyah, according to the al-Baghdadia TV network.

A police officer was also killed and four others were injured when a roadside bomb targeted a checkpoint in the town of Yusufiyah, around 32km south of Baghdad.

IS has carried out numerous attacks in Baghdad in recent months, including the targeting of a shopping mall on 11 January that killed at least 18 people.