The Associated Press reported that Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the commander of U.S. forces south of Baghdad called for support of the forces affiliated with Awakening Councils for confrontation against militias and terrorists in Iraq.
Lynch has credited these groups for much of the improvement in security in the region he commands, an area that stretches to the Iranian and Saudi Arabian borders.
Lynch, who leads the 3rd Infantry Division, said he had 26,000 members of the groups in the area he controls and that they have given U.S. and Iraqi forces a key advantage in seeking to clear extremist-held pockets.
This American commander added: “They want to be recognized as legitimate members of society and that has to happen,”
Lynch is not alone in calling for the groups to be absorbed. Iraq’s Sunni Arab vice president said Monday that failing to bring them into the fold of Iraq’s security forces could jeopardize the recent improvements in security, added AP.