Local police units stop work in key Iraqi province

By Mohammed Abbas

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Thousands of members of neighborhood police units have stopped work in one of Iraq's most dangerous provinces, Iraqi and U.S. military officials said on Friday.

The mainly Sunni Arab units, widely known as concerned local citizens, or "CLCs", said they had disbanded altogether which would represent a major blow to U.S. and Iraqi efforts to pacify Diyala province.

Violence across Iraq is down 60 percent since June, due mainly to an extra 30,000 U.S. troops and the growth of the CLC units, which sprang up in western Anbar province in late 2006.

The U.S. military said the units in ethnically and religiously mixed Diyala had stopped work over pay and a disagreement with the provincial police chief.

The leader of a CLC umbrella organization for Diyala said the units were disbanding because Diyala's police had kidnapped two women. They would not regroup until the province's police chief, whom they accuse of sectarianism, was replaced.

Shi'ite provincial police chief, Major-General Ghanem al-Qureihsi, denied the accusations in an interview with the Washington Post this week.

"As a revenge for the honor of the kidnapped women we dissolved the popular committee (CLC units) in the province," Abu Talib, head of what he said was a 20,000-strong CLC movement in Diyala, told Reuters.

He said his group wants Qureihsi replaced and a balance of Sunnis and Shi'ites in the Iraqi police and army.