Sunni Militias to Be Disbanded, Government Says

By DIAA HADID

By Diaa Hadid

The Associated Press

BAGHDAD

Iraq’s Shiite-led government declared Saturday that after restive areas are calmed it will disband Sunni groups battling Islamic insurgents, saying it does not want them to become a separate military force.

And in Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets, the military said, in the third confirmed cross-border offensive by Turkish forces in less than a week.

The statement from Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi was the government’s most explicit declaration yet of its intent to eventually dismantle the groups backed and funded by the United States as a tool for reducing violence.

The militias, more than 70,000 strong and often made up of former insurgents, are known as Awakening Councils, or Concerned Local Citizens.

“We completely, absolutely reject the Awakening becoming a third military organization,” al-Obaidi said at a news conference.

He added that the groups would also not be allowed to have any infrastructure, such as a headquarters building, that would give them long-term legitimacy.

The government has pledged to absorb about a quarter of the men into the predominantly Shiite-controlled security services and military and to provide vocational training so that the rest can find jobs. Integration would also allow Sunnis to regain lost influence in the defense and interior ministries.

“We’ve kicked al-Qaida out and we don’t want chaos to take their place,” said Sheik Hate Ail, a tribal leader who helped form one of the groups in the western province of Anbar.

He added that the government should not “brazenly exploit the sacrifices of these Iraqi” fighters and “should absorb these people, not reject them and send them away.”

The government has been vague about its plans. The interior ministry has agreed to hire about 7,000 men so far on temporary contracts and plans to hire an additional 3,000. But the ministry has neither specified the length of the contracts nor the positions the men would fill.

Meanwhile, warplanes crossed into Iraqi Kurdistan from Turkey, carrying out a half-hour bombing raid, the Turkish military said.

Turkish forces also shelled the border area from inside its territory but did not say how deep into Iraq the warplanes penetrated or which areas were shelled.

what’s next

The Iraqi government has pledged to absorb about a quarter of those in the Sunni groups into the predominantly Shiite-controlled security services and military and to provide vocational training so that the rest can find jobs.

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