BAGHDAD (AFP)
The U.S. military will next month transfer responsibility for paying 100,000 mostly Sunni fighters battling al-Qaeda to Baghdad's Shiite-led government, the military said on Thursday.
The government of Iraq and the coalition forces have agreed in principle to transfer all 100,000 "Sons of Iraq" from October 1, U.S. military spokesman Major John Hall told AFP.
The U.S. military refers to the Sunni fighters, also known as the Awakening or Sahwa, as the Sons of Iraq or "SoIs".
The U.S. military refers to the Sunni fighters, also known as the Awakening or Sahwa, as the Sons of Iraq or "SoIs".
He said Baghdad alone has around 54,000 Sahwa members under contract to the U.S. military, and these are expected to be transferred to the government on October 1.
"The first payment by the government of Iraq will be November 1, 2008. The current average monthly cost of these 54,000 SoIs is 15 million dollars," Hall added.
The rest are mainly spread across Sunni regions of Iraq, especially in the provinces of Salaheddin, Diyala, Nineveh and Kirkuk.
The Sahwa were first formed in the western Iraqi Sunni province of Anbar in September 2006 when local Sunni tribes from Anbar, who initially supported al-Qaeda against U.S. forces, turned against them because of their extremism.
Under the charismatic leadership of Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Reesha and backed by the U.S. military, nearly 40 Sunni tribes in Anbar came together and established the first Sahwa council.
Within a year the Sunni Arabs of Anbar had ousted al-Qaeda and transformed the one-time extremist region into the safest area of Iraq.
However last September 13 Abu Reesha was killed by a roadside car bomb near his home in Ramadi in an attack claimed by Osama bin Laden's group.
After the early Sahwa successes in Anbar, the U.S. military began recruiting anti-Qaeda groups in Sunni regions countrywide.
Over the past year, the 100,000 Sahwa members have been credited with helping to reduce levels of violence in Iraq to a four-year low.
In recognition of their efforts the Sahwa hope eventually to be absorbed into the legitimate security forces, although some Iraqi leaders, mainly Shiites, say the groups are nothing more than dangerous private militias. |
