Iraq now handing out Sunni fighters’ pay

BAGHDAD – The young man stamped his foot in salute, handed over his identification card and signed his name in a ledger. He pressed a thumb print in blue ink, and an Iraqi military officer handed him a roll of pink-and-green dinar notes.

So began the final step Monday in an important transition for the Sunni paramilitary fighters known as the Sons of Iraq, who previously had been paid by the U.S. military.

As they lined up outside military bases in Baghdad, bombings elsewhere were a reminder of the suicide attacks that plagued Iraq before many Sunni fighters chose to forsake radical militant groups for an alliance with the Americans in 2007.

Iraq’s ruling Shiites still view them with suspicion. The hostility reflects deep mistrust between the country’s newly assertive Shiite majority and one-time Sunni elite, angry about their fall from power.

But as the U.S. military prepares to start pulling out of Iraq, responsibility for the Sons of Iraq was transferred by the Americans to the Iraqi army. The payments Monday marked the last step in the transition.

“Today’s a tremendous day,” said Brig. Gen. William Grimsley, deputy commander of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, whose area encompasses Baghdad.