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| Iraq |
| Sahwas get paid |
| 2008-11-11 |
| In the meantime, Sunni militias which have played a key role in driving al-Qaeda fighters from Baghdad began receiving pay cheques on Monday from the Iraqi government that has long eyed them with suspicion. Up to 60 stations were open throughout the Iraqi capital to pay some 54,000 members of the U.S.-allied so-called Awakening Councils or Sahwas which used to receive their monthly salaries from the U.S. military. "This is really a tremendously important day and a manifestation of the reconciliation process that is happening in Iraq," U.S. Army Brigadier General Robin Swan told AFP. "The real proof of the pudding is in the payday." The Iraqi government has always been wary of the groups which formed in 2007 largely made up of fighters that once battled U.S. and Iraqi forces, and its bid to bring them into the security forces could test Baghdad's fragile calm. The Sahwas say their relations with the Iraqi army under which they serve have improved, but they fear that over the long term the government is determined to sideline them. |
| Posted by:Fred |