Baghdad's blast walls removed amid concerns over security

Baghdad: As Baghdad security improves and US troops draw back, workers in cranes are removing mile after mile of giant concrete slabs put up to prevent the slaughter of innocents in sectarian fighting.

For Baghdad bookseller Abu Ali, it's too soon. Sitting in an alley surrounded by Shiite Muslim religious tracts, he recalls how his son was blown up by a massive bomb.

"Our security forces aren't experienced enough to maintain security by themselves," the 56-year-old told Reuters. "I wish these walls would be lifted, but the suffering we went through was horrible. No one wants to go through that again."

Once-towering blast walls put up at the height of Iraq's sectarian bloodshed are coming down and letting light into dusty city streets, or connecting divided neighbourhoods, for the first time in three or more years.

Violence has dropped sharply and the removal of the walls is prompting dreams of a boom in business as restaurants and shops once again emerge in sunlight.

However, there is also fear. Ali's 17-year-old son was one of at least 140 killed in April 2007 in Baghdad's single most devastating insurgent attack since the 2003 US invasion.

Insurgents including Al Qaida continue to launch car and suicide bombings aimed at unsettling Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki's majority Shiite-led administration and tipping the country back into sectarian war.

There are fears that militants will try to stoke tensions further ahead of a parliamentary election next January - a vote that will test whether Iraq's feuding factions can live in peace - and also as US combat troops pull out of city centres this month.

What does the future hold for Iraq now that troops are pulling out? Is this a good step towards Iraq's recovery?