As Iraq takes over U.S.-backed patrols, doubts persist

By Missy Ryan

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States will begin handing over control to the Iraqi government in October of largely Sunni Muslim local guard units credited with helping contain bloodshed across Iraq.

Yet doubts remain about how the Shi'ite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will treat the unofficial forces, known as "Awakening Councils," that some officials see as a grave threat.

The Iraqi government will take over payment in October of the 54,000 members of the neighborhood units that operate checkpoints and patrol streets in and around Baghdad, U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Kulmayer said in an interview.

It will mark the first major step in a delicate transition that U.S. officials hope will ultimately see 20 percent of the U.S.-backed units incorporated into Iraqi security forces.

Many in the armed units "were former insurgents, and that's why we call this a reconciliation issue", said Kulmayer, who will oversee the transfer of Awakening units to Iraqi control. "It's important that they're now included in the new Iraq."

Under the U.S. and Iraqi plan, those who don't join Iraqi security forces will be given civilian jobs.

The 99,000 members of the units, also known as 'Sons of Iraq', are credited with playing a key role in the sharp drop in violence across Iraq since they sprang up as a grassroots response to al Qaeda in western Anbar province in late 2006.

Some Iraqi officials have been wary of the units, cautioning weapons must ultimately remain in the hands of the state alone.

U.S. officials had been hoping to hand over of all the Awakening units by June 2009, but the Maliki government now wants to take control more quickly, Kulmayer said.

At the same time, U.S. officials voice frustration about the plodding pace the units are being brought into security forces.

The Maliki government "has their reasons for moving more slowly than the coalition would like to see," a senior Pentagon intelligence official in Baghdad said on condition of anonymity.

DUBIOUS ALLEGIANCE

Some Iraqi officials, beyond fears that former insurgents could infiltrate the Iraqi police, are loathe to accept one-time enemies whose government allegiance they see as dubious.

The units are also widely seen as posing a sectarian threat to Maliki's Shi'ite-dominated Interior Ministry and police.

"A lot of this is about political power," said Colin Kahl, an Iraq specialist at Georgetown University. "The question becomes, 'how much confidence do we have that the Iraqi government is going to do right by a bunch of guys it hates?'"