Iraq takes control of anti-Qaeda fighters

The U.S. military on Wednesday transferred control of 100,000 Sunni Arab anti-Qaeda fighters to Iraq's Shiite-led government, a military spokesman told AFP.

The transfer of responsibility and payments for all "Sons of Iraq" begins with 54,000 men in the province of Baghdad.

The U.S. military uses Sons of Iraq, or "SOIs," to refer to the militia, also known as Sahwa (Awakening) Councils, which it recruited from among Sunni tribesmen and former insurgents.

Iraqi National Security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie told AFP "the government of Iraq will pay the first salary on the 31st Oct 2008." The monthly bill of Baghdad's 54,000 Shawas is around 15 million dollars.

"MNF-I (Multinational Force-Iraq) is transferring the responsibility of the Sons of Iraq to the Iraq government today," US military spokesman Lieutenant David Russell said without giving further details.

Control of the remaining Sahwas in Sunni areas of central, western and north-central Iraq will be transferred gradually, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

Last week, the U.S. commander for Baghdad, Major General Jeffery Hammond told reporters that Iraq will start paying the salaries of Sahwa men in Baghdad - a monthly bill of around 15 million dollars - from November 10.

The fighters, mostly former insurgents who fought U.S. and Iraqi forces in the aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, have helped curb the violence since late 2006 after they sided with the Americans to battle al-Qaeda jihadists.

Baghdad has said 20 percent of the fighters would be absorbed into the country's security forces and that most of the remainder would be considered for civilian jobs.

The Sahwas first sprung up in the western Iraqi province of Anbar in September 2006 where within a few months they threw out the al-Qaeda jihadists from the region, making it one of the safest in the country.

Since they such anti-Qaeda groups have mushroomed across Iraq's mainly Sunni regions with the backing of the U.S. military and have been credited with helping curb the violence which is currently at a four-year low.