Thursday, June 26, 2008

Iraq Integrates 9,000 Awakening Council Members Into Police Force


This is absolutely a brilliant idea on the part of the Iraqis. There have been reports lately that the U.S. was going to be stopping or at least cutting back on payments to most of the Awakening Councils, so the Iraqi government has jumped at the opportunity to blend these valued allies into the police force. Here's some of the report over at Aswat Aliraq:


A spokesman for Baghdad security plan on Wednesday said around 9000 awakening council members were appointed as Baghdad police personnels.“The number of awakening council members(Sons of Iraq) appointed as policemen has come to 9000,” Brig, Gen. Qassem Atta, spokesman for Baghdad security plan, told Aswat al-Iraq-Voices of Iraq(VOI).

Not only does this ensure that the Awakening Council members stay in the fight and aligned with the goals of the Iraqi government, but it will bring some excellent leadership and expertise to the police forces.

I'm not sure if the U.S. commanders in Iraq were behind this strategy, but it really is brilliant. At the same time, the links that the Awakening members have to the civilian population will keep a good flow of intel coming into the police departments on the movements and activities of al Qaeda in Iraq. Good, good news.


Iraqi Gov’t integrates 9000 awakening council members into Baghdad police-spokesman

Baghdad, June24, (VOI)-A spokesman for Baghdad security plan on Wednesday said around 9000 awakening council members were appointed as Baghdad police personnels.“The number of awakening council members(Sons of Iraq) appointed as policemen has come to 9000,” Brig, Gen. Qassem Atta, spokesman for Baghdad security plan, told Aswat al-Iraq-Voices of Iraq(VOI).The spokesman noted “integrating Sons of Iraq into police personnels is ongoing”, but he did not elaborate the whole number of awakening council across Baghdad areas.Awakening councils are mostly Sunni groups that turned against al-Qaeda network in Iraq(AQI)and have helped US-Iraq forces to wrestle power from the AQI in many western and central Iraqi areas.AM

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