Iraq works to find jobs for ‘Sons’

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Iraq works to find jobs for ‘Sons’
By James Warden, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, March 13, 2009

The military and Iraqi government are accelerating efforts to create jobs for "Sons of Iraq" members as the group’s transfer to Iraqi control nears completion, officials said Thursday.

In all, the Iraqi government now has control of around 82,000 of the estimated 100,000 "Sons of Iraq" members. The men, some of them former insurgents, have manned checkpoints as part of an initiative considered one reason behind security gains in recent years.

The "Sons of Iraq" in Ninevah and Kirkuk provinces were transferred to Iraqi government control on March 1, and registration has begun in Salah Ad Din, the last of nine provinces that will transfer members of the group to Iraq. In Diyala province, the Iraqi army completed its first payday activities for the men there.

Salah Ad Din’s transfer is expected to be complete on April 1.

U.S. forces made their last payment to "Sons of Iraq" in Sudayra in Kirkuk province on March 2. Soldiers monitored Iraqi troops as they made payments to more than 1,000 members.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=61294