Iraq to cut Sunni anti-terrorism salaries

BAGHDAD, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- The Iraqi government plans to cut the salaries of the Sunni Arab members of the U.S.-created Awakening anti-terrorism brigades, officials say.

Government spokesman Tahseen al-Sheikhly told the Chicago Tribune that starting this month, Awakening members will be paid 300,000 Iraqi dinars, or about $250 per month, compared to between $400 and $600 per month previously.

The Awakening leaders, some of whom were formerly insurgent fighters opposing U.S.-led coalition forces, have played a key role in opposing al-Qaida In Iraq terrorists, who are also Sunnis. But their relations with Iraq's Shiite-led government are tense, and the move to cut their salaries could add to that tension, some members told the newspaper.

"They will all quit," predicted Mohammed Girtani, an Awakening leader in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora. "And if the Awakening quits, there will be problems in the neighborhoods because there will be no one to protect them."

"Of course people are going to be angry," Shuja Naje Shaker, another Awakening leader, told the Tribune. "Probably, we will have a big problem among all the Awakening in Iraq."