Sunni Awakening officers are kicked off police force in Iraq

[sabra]

Source: WP

BAGHDAD - Hundreds of police officers, formerly members of an American-backed Sunni paramilitary force, will be stripped of their ranks in the Sunni Arab province of Anbar, tribal leaders and Anbar police said Sunday.

The officers called the move by Iraq's Interior Ministry, which oversees police, a threat to security in Anbar, once a stronghold of Sunni insurgent violence. In 2006, a group called the Awakening, some of them former insurgents, rose up with tribal and U.S. backing to battle al-Qaeda in Iraq. The same strategy was mirrored across the country with American backing and funding, and what became the Sons of Iraq is credited with helping calm Sunni Arab areas.

In 2007, the U.S. military transformed many of the Awakening members in Anbar into police officers. Now many, such as these 410 men, are being stripped of their ranks, are being targeted by al-Qaeda in Iraq or think the Shiite-led government is trying to get rid of them.

"This committee in the Ministry of Interior is sectarian," said Ahmed Abu Risha, the head of the Awakening and a tribal leader in Anbar. "When you dismiss those who fought al-Qaeda in the streets, this is support for al-Qaeda. What I expect are dire consequences."

...

The group of officers demanded that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki rescind the order, calling it a "gift offered by the government on a gold platter" to al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/26/AR2010092603533.html

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. This is gonna be trouble

[Ian David]

2. Oh, THAT will win-over their Hearts and Minds for SURE! n/t

[Solly Mack]

3. k/r