BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Shiite-led government declared Saturday that after restive areas are calmed it will disband Sunni groups battling Islamic extremists because it does not want them to become a separate military force.
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 vital 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.
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 provide vocational training so that the rest can find jobs. Integration would also allow Sunnis to regain lost influence in the key 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.
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 specified neither the length of the contracts nor the positions the men would fill.
The Sunni irregulars have contributed to a 60 percent drop in violence in the last half of the year, along with the infusion of thousands of U.S. troops and a six-month cease-fire by firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Thousands of Baghdad residents took advantage of the newfound sense of security Saturday to leave their homes in droves and pack the capital’s parks and amusement rides.
“I wish peace and prosperity to our beloved country Iraq and hope all our brothers, sons and families who live abroad come back and, God willing, during the next Eid all Iraqis will come together and peace, security and brotherhood will prevail,” said Abdul Jabbar Kadhim, an employee at the Dora oil refinery, as he played with his children in a riverside park.
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