MOI hires 2,000 Sahwa fighters in Diala
September 23, 2008 - 12:56:35
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraq’s interior ministry on Tuesday said it has hired 2,000 Sahwa (Awakening) fighters in Diala since Operation Bashaer al-Kheir (Promise of Good) started in the province late last July.“The ministry has devoted 4,000 jobs for Sahwa fighters as policemen in Diala. To this day 2,000 applicable candidates were admitted, while the ministry of defense devoted 3,000 jobs for the fighters as soldiers,” Maj. General Abdelkareem Khalaf, the director of the ministry’s National Command Center (NCC), told Aswat al-Iraq in statements.The Iraqi forces had launched the wide-scale Operation Bashaer al-Kheir in the restive city of Diala, 57 km northeast of Baghdad, to manhunt al-Qaeda remnants in the province, where they moved their activities after being flushed out by the Sahwa fighters in the western Iraq Sunni province of al-Anbar.Khalaf said the ministry of interior will continue hiring the remaining Sahwa fighters until it reaches the figure of 4,000, while others will be hired in other government departments in accordance with specializations and education degrees.The Iraqi government, coinciding with Operation Bashaer al-Kheir, has offered 20,000 jobs for the residents of Diala.
Sahwa councils formed up in a number of Iraqi provinces like al-Anbar, Diala, Ninewa and Salah al-Din with the aim of mustering political and local tribal powers to fight armed groups, particularly al-Qaeda network, in those areas.
These councils are usually led by tribal chiefs or notables in the provinces.
After the assassination of his father and six of his brothers by al-Qaeda Organization in Iraq in 2004, Sheikh Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha founded the Anbar Sahwa Council and chaired the Iraq Sahwa Congress, an alliance encompassing 42 clans that pledged to fight al-Qaeda members.
The Sahwa fighters managed to flush out armed groups from a number of areas once considered strongholds of gunmen for years.
Abu Risha, however, was killed in an IED attack that targeted his house in al-Ramadi, capital of the predominantly Sunni Anbar. The attack also left his bodyguard and two other escorts killed and his nephew seriously wounded.
Diala province, a mix of Sunnis and Shiites, extends to the northeast of Baghdad as far as the Iranian border. Its capital is Baaquba, 57 km northeast of Baghdad. It covers an area of 17,685 square kilometers (6,828 sq mi).In January 2008 Operation Phantom Phoenix was launched in an attempt to eradicate the remnants of al-Qaeda network following the Diala province campaign between 2006 and 2007. AmR (I)
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