Sons Of Iraq Being Successfully Intergrated Into Iraq's Security Forces (So Far)

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (April 10, 2008) - Iraqi police recruits are instructed on personnel search techniques from Iraqi police trainers from the Provincial Directorate of Police Headquarters during a two week course that transitions Sons of Iraq volunteers into Iraqi policeman or "shurta" at the Furat Iraqi police training academy on, April 10. The two week course is part of an IP expansion program aimed to get more police on the streets in Baghdad and integrate the SoI into the Iraqi security forces. Photo by Capt. John Soto, U.S. Army.

US Says No Surge In Violence In Iraq Guard Transfer
-- Reuters

BAGHDAD, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Fears that the U.S. military's handover of neighbourhood guard units to Iraqi control would unleash a new wave of violence in Baghdad have so far proved unwarranted, the U.S. military said.

For weeks ahead of the transfer of responsibility for Baghdad's 51,000 neighbourhood guards, leaders voiced fears they could be arrested or attacked by those in the government who harbour grudges against former enemies.

Many of the guards, grouped together in "Awakening Councils", are former Sunni insurgents seen as a threat by some within Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government.

Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Kulmayer, a senior reconciliation official for U.S. forces in Iraq, said on Friday that there had been no spike in attacks or arrests since the Oct. 1 handover.

"Another piece of sovereignty has returned to Iraq," Kulmayer, who helped oversee the transfer, said in an interview.

Maliki's government will command and pay the guards, who are credited with helping staunch bloodshed since they appeared in 2006 as a grassroots response to al Qaeda militants.

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My Comment: Just make sure that they continue to be paid.