BAGHDAD: The Shiite-dominated government in Iraq is driving out many leaders of Sunni citizen patrols, the groups of former insurgents who joined the U.S. payroll and have been a major pillar in the decline in violence around the country.
In restive Diyala Province, U.S. and Iraqi military officials say there were orders to arrest hundreds of members of what is known as the Awakening movement as part of large security operations by the Iraqi military. At least five senior members have been arrested there in recent weeks, leaders of the groups say.
Membro de milícia sunita; foto NYT
West of Baghdad, former insurgent leaders contend that the Iraqi military is going after 650 Awakening members, many of whom have fled the once-violent area they had kept safe. While the crackdown appears to be focused on a relatively small number of leaders whom the Iraqi government considers the most dangerous, there are influential voices to dismantle the U.S.-backed movement entirely.
“The state cannot accept the Awakening,” said Jalaladeen Sagheer, a leading Shiite member of Parliament. “Their days are numbered.”
The government’s rising hostility toward the Awakening councils amounts to a bet that its military, feeling increasingly strong, can provide security in former guerrilla strongholds without the support of these former Sunni fighters who once waged devastating attacks on U.S. and Iraqi targets. It also is occurring as Awakening members are eager to translate their influence and organization on the ground into political power.
But it is causing a rift with the U.S. military, which contends any significant diminution of the Awakening could result in renewed violence, jeopardizing the substantial security gains in the past year. U.S. commanders say that the practice, however unconventional, of paying the guerrillas has saved the lives of hundreds of U.S. soldiers.
(…) Many Sunni insurgents had previously been allied with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and other extremist groups.
(…)
U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have just completed a draft security agreement that next year, Iraqi officials say, would substantially pull U.S. forces back from cities and towns to be replaced by Iraqi security forces.
(…) The government, which is dominated by Shiites, who also make up the majority group in the country, has never been pleased with the continuing U.S. plan to finance and organize Sunni insurgents into militia guards, charging that they will stop fighting only as long as it serves their interests.
(…)
The U.S. military focused its operations on Sunni insurgent groups, cooperating meantime with the Shiite-led government. The bodies of dozens of Sunnis surfaced on streets every morning, the victims of Shiite death squads. And many Sunnis themselves grew disgusted with the large number of civilian casualties in near-daily suicide bombings.
The U.S. military began paying many members of the Awakening movement as the program expanded, even including Shiite members who make up about one fifth of the program. Now all are paid roughly $300 a month by the United States to guard checkpoints and buildings and – for those who used to be insurgents – to no longer blow up American convoys and shoot American troops (…)
