Report: U.S. moves forward with plan to hire Sunni 'guardians' for Iraqi neighborhoods

Above: Members of the 'Amariyah Volunteers' working with U.S. troops in Baghdad last week. Left: General David Petraeus inspects unarmed volunteers for publicity photos.

The United States is pressing ahead with a U.S.-financed effort to recruit and pay local Sunni Arabs to protect neighborhoods in districts scattered across a wide area of central Iraq.

The initiative has generated deep skepticism in some members of the Shiite-led Iraqi government, who fear that the strategy could intensify the already intense sectarian warfare here.

The U.S. military says it is not arming the new forces, at least initially, but in some areas, tribal groups bring their own weapons...

Asked whether he supported the Guardian program, whether he thought it should be put in place countrywide and whether he thought it could improve security, Petraeus replied, "Yes, yes and yes."

But he said that the effort would have to be tailored to individual Iraqi neighborhoods...

Petraeus said that the Guardians had not so far been issued arms but were to phone Iraqi and U.S. security forces if problems turned up. Although American officers in Ghazaliya repeatedly referred to the Guardians as "volunteers," once the Guardians sign a contract pledging allegiance to the Iraqi government they are in fact paid, with U.S. taxpayer money. The amount is that of an Iraqi Army soldier of equivalent responsibility.

Read the rest at the International Herald Tribune

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