Transitions aren’t easy for ‘Sons of Iraq’

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Staff Sgt. Gabriel Minor hands a wanted poster to an Iraqi man during a patrol Sunday in Jihad area. "Sons of Iraq" groups give intelligence tips directly to Company E, but leaders hope the transition to Iraqi government authority will help them work closer with Iraqi Army leaders.


Transitions aren’t easy for ‘Sons of Iraq’
By James Warden, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, September 24, 2008

BAGHDAD — The council meeting was supposed to have been about reintegrating people returning to the Jihad area of Baghdad as the fighting died down.

Iraqi Staff Col. Ali Thmir Abood wanted to give a brief security report while he was there, though, so he started describing the situation, including some problems with local "Sons of Iraq." Many of those at the meeting are affiliated with the security groups, and some took offense.

Khalid Jorhay Hammad, an assistant to the council’s chairman, stood up when Abood finished and leveled his own accusations.

It would have been just one more spat in a country notorious for lengthy meetings, except that "Sons of Iraq" members like Hammad will soon be collecting their paychecks from Abood and his fellow soldiers.

Starting in October, Baghdad’s "Sons of Iraq" groups will come under the authority of an Iraqi government that has often been outright hostile to them. The move is designed, in part, to help Iraqi security forces and the U.S.-funded groups work better together, but the relationship between the two sides in some areas remains precarious as the transition looms. The problems could portend trouble for a program whose smooth transition many people — including Gen. Ray Odierno, the new U.S. commander in Iraq — say is essential to preserving hard-won security gains.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=57612