Iraqi leaders look to dismantle Awakening

BAGHDAD, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- The Shiite-dominated Iraqi government is driving out leaders of Sunni groups of former insurgents that have helped reduce violence, U.S. officials said.

U.S. and Iraqi military officials said orders were issued in Diyala province for the arrest of hundreds of members of the so-called Awakening movement as part of the Iraqi military's security operations, The New York Times reported.

The former insurgents are paid by the U.S. military for their help in reducing the violence but some Iraqi leaders want the organizations dismantled, the Times said.

"The state cannot accept the Awakening," said Sheik Jalaladeen al-Sagheer, a Shiite member of parliament. "Their days are numbered."

The move to diminish the organization's profile has caused tension between Iraqi officials and the U.S. military, which says dismantling Awakening could lead to renewed violence.

"If it is not handled properly, we could have a security issue," U.S. Army Brig. Gen. David Perkins, senior military spokesman in Iraq, told the Times.

Awakening leaders, meanwhile, say the government hasn't honored its promise to recruit its members into security forces.

"Some people from the government encouraged us to fight against al-Qaida, but it seems that now that al-Qaida is finished they don't want us anymore," Abu Marouf, whom U.S. officials said was a guerrilla leader in the 1920s Revolutionary Brigade west of Baghdad, told the Times. "So how can you say I am not betrayed?"