BAGHDAD, Sept. 4 (VOI) – The Iraqi government will begin paying Sahwa fighters their salaries starting next month, an official spokesperson for the government said on Thursday.
"Starting October 1, the government will pay Sahwa fighters their salaries and will be responsible for supervising these groups, whose number is estimated at 50,000," Dabbagh said in an exclusive statement to Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI).
"Sahwa men have done an honorable, courageous and a patriotic job by defending Iraq and its people against the terrorist al-Qaeda network and other armed groups," Dabbagh noted.
Nearly 20 percent of those fighters will join the security forces, which have thus far taken 6,000 of them. Others will be given civilian jobs or will undertake vocational training in centers that will be set up for this purpose, the spokesperson explained.
This move, assuming competent follow up, will do nearly as much for Sunni-Shiite reconciliation as Prime Minister Maliki's confrontation with the Sadrist militias.
The surge, as even Barack Obama admits, is working.
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