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Baghdad: 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 on how Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki's Shi'ite-led government 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 neighbourhood units that operate checkpoints and patrol streets in and around Baghdad, US Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Kulmayer said in an interview.
It will mark the first major step in a delicate transition that US officials hope will ultimately see 20 percent of the US-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 US 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 Qaida 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.
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