The residents of Adhamiya have vowed to destroy the walls U.S. troops are constructing to separate Baghdad neighborhoods on sectarian grounds.

“We shall destroy the walls the notorious occupation is constructing and keep our city an integral part of Iraq,” a statement by a newly formed resistance group said.

The statement emailed to the newspaper, said the wall separating Adhamiya from the rest of Baghdad “must be brought down” and this will be “achieved through the power and muscles of all the residents of Baghdad.”

The group, the Adhamiya National Youth, said U.S. troops have divided their neighborhood into two parts with aim of weakening its resistance. 

“Those who constructed the wall realize that the attacks targeting Adhamiya from all sides are being carried out by the death squads which the occupation and Israeli intelligence have set up,” the statement said.

In another development, the inhabitants of Kadhimiya, a Shiite-dominated neighborhood have joined forces with the Sunni majority Adhamiya to have the pulled down.

The two neighborhoods are working to demonstrate that the two sects can tolerate each other and live peacefully together.

The neighborhoods and their elders are lobbying the parliament which recently passed a resolution demanding the destruction of the wall.

They are also mobilizing the inhabitants to stand firmly against U.S. plans to encircle Baghdad neighborhoods with concrete walls, urging the young to dismantle the existing ones.