Dilemma of Iraq's Anti-Qaeda Sunnis

"I've made dozens of applications for a job in the security forces but with no luck," Abdullah Samarraie, a member of the Awakening council in Baquba, north of Baghdad, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Saturday, September 6.

Samarraie repeatedly knocked at the door of government officials seeking a job as a policeman or solider.

But all his attempts to be employed have been in vain.

The 30-year-old is one of about 100,000 Sunni tribesmen who joined groups supported by the US military to fight Al-Qaeda militants at an average monthly salary of around 300 dollars.

From next month, however, the responsibility for paying these Sunni groups known as Sahwa (Awakening) councils is set to be taken over by Baghdad's Shiite-led government.

Many Sahwa members have been hoping to be rewarded with jobs in the security forces or other state establishments in return for battling Al-Qaeda.

They are credited with helping to reduce violence levels across Iraq to a four-year low.

But now they fear their Sahwa councils will be disbanded instead, leaving them both disarmed and jobless.

More