Iraq unveils plan to dig security trench to handle booby-trapped vehicles

Al-Qadisiyyah (Iraqinews.com) – Iraq has unveiled a medieval tactic to control car bomb blasts in the southern governorates though digging a security trench there.

Speaking to Al-Hayat newspaper on Tuesday, Diwaniyah police chief Farqad al-Issawi said, “Najaf, Karbala, Diwaniyah and Muthanna governorates have formed a higher security committee and agreed to dig a security trench that will be used to detect booby-trapped vehicles entering the four southern governorates without passing through security checkpoints.”

Issawi explained that police forces have exerted utmost efforts “to secure desert routes in the four governorates, either through deploying security personnel or operating regular security patrols, but all such temporary solutions failed to end the danger of booby-trapped vehicles due to the limited number of policemen.”

“A meeting will be held next week to determine costs of the security trench and the body entitled to maintain security in each governorate,” Issawi said.

Iraq declared the collapse of Islamic State’s territorial influence earlier in November with the recapture of Rawa, a city on Anbar’s western borders with Syria, which was the group’s last bastion in Iraq.

Despite the victory over IS in the country, observers say Islamic State is believed to constitute a security threat even after the group’s defeat at its main havens across Iraqi provinces.