Iraqis Building Makeshift Roadblocks (to control entry into neighborhoods)

[Barrett808]

Iraqis Building Makeshift Roadblocks
By ANTONIO CASTANEDA, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - They're set up on roads all around the Iraqi capital, sometimes rusty car skeletons, washing machines or home appliances piled together, sometimes piles of garbage or dirt. Often a gunman or two keeps watch for any strangers.

Desperate to protect their homes from sectarian violence, Baghdad's residents have turned to makeshift roadblocks. In some areas, the majority of streets are blocked off or protected by homemade barriers that slow traffic.

Some barriers have been in place for over a year in both Shiite and Sunni neighborhoods. But many more have appeared since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra that ignited a wave of sectarian violence and left the country struggling to defuse another crisis.

"They increased twofold after Samarra," said 1st Lt. Brian Murphy of Eastchester, N.Y., assigned to the 8th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. "They're everywhere, in Shiite neighborhoods, Sunni ones."

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060426/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_road_barriers

[Robbien]

1. The US military is complaining it is keeping them out also

Perhaps that is intentional. Too many people being wisked away in the night by people in uniforms.

[central scrutinizer]

2. wow, gated communities- a sure sign of an upper class neighborhood

they have definitely turned the corner - soon there will golf courses