Haider al-Abadi, Iraqi Prime Minister, on Feb.6 wrote off any military plans announced on building a concrete wall around Baghdad in a proposal to prevent ISIS assaults.

“Baghdad is the capital of all Iraqis,” P.M. al-Abadi said in a statement. “There can be no wall or fence to isolate it or prevent other civilians from entering it.”

P.M. al-Abadi said Baghdad would be secured by the rearrangement of checkpoints and sealing security gaps disrupting the perimeter, in addition to easing the transfer process in and out of the city of around a 4-million population.

Baghdad Operations Command said on Feb.3 that preliminary work on establishing a security barrier was ongoing, however it provided few details.

Furthermore, ISIS, the extremist group that seized vast territory north and west of Baghdad in 2014, claimed responsible for several attacks in recent months in the city. The last one, on Jan. 11, violently targeted a shopping mall and killed at least 18 people, according to police sources.

Many districts in the capital are now surrounded by a decade-old concrete set of fences which are traced back to a period of conflict that incited Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims against each other.