IRAQ:THE SUCCESS of the US "surge" in Iraq may be under threat as Sunni militia employed by the US to fight al-Qaeda are warning of a national strike because they are not being paid regularly.
Leading members of the 80,000-strong Sahwa councils have said they will stop fighting unless payment of their $10 a day wage is resumed. The fighters are accusing the US military of using them to clear al-Qaeda militants from dangerous areas and then abandoning them.
A telephone survey by GuardianFilms for Channel 4 News reveals that out of 49 Sahwa councils four with more than 1,400 men have already quit, 38 are threatening to go on strike, and two already have.
Improved security in Iraq in recent months has been attributed to a combination of the "surge", the truce observed by Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army, and the effectiveness and commitment of the councils, which are drawn from Sunni Arabs and probably the most significant factor, according to most analysts.
In his speech marking the fifth anniversary of the war, George Bush highlighted the significance of what he called "the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden". Iraq, he said, "has become the place where Arabs joined with Americans to drive al-Qaeda out." But dozens of phone calls to Sahwa leaders reveal bitterness and anger.
"We know the Americans are using us to do their dirty work and kill off the resistance for them and then we get nothing for it," said Abu Abdul-Aziz, the head of the council in Abu Ghraib, where 500 men have already quit.
"The Americans got what they wanted. We purged al-Qaeda for them and now people are saying why should we have any more deaths for the Americans. They have given us nothing."