HOLY KARBALA, Iraq: Iraqi crews will begin to dig a 12-mile-long trench this month to the west and south of the holy city of Karbala to help protect residents and two holy shrines – Husseini and Abbasi mausoleums - from car bombs.

The Karbala trench will create a 10-foot-deep crescent. Police towers will punctuate the trench, which will funnel traffic to checkpoints outside the city center.

President of the Karbala Governorate Council Abdul Aal al-Yasiry said: "Farms on the other sides of the city will prevent terrorists" from entering.

He added the trench will allow the city to concentrate guards in towers and checkpoints, rather than patrolling miles of open desert.

Residents welcome any plan to make Karbala safer.

"If the trench will prevent car bombs, let them make a thousand trenches," said Haider Abdul Razzaq, 39, who runs a hotel for pilgrims. "But I'm afraid the trench wouldn't stop the terrorists from their plans to kill civilians."