US forces put the Iraqi government in charge of tribal guards in one of the country's most restive provinces on Sunday, another step in the US military's gradual disengagement from day-to-day combat. The tribal guard units, known as "Awakenings" and made up mostly of Sunni Arabs including former insurgents, have been on the front line against al Qaeda Sunni militants.
The US military put a 9,000-strong guard force in Diyala province north of Baghdad under Iraqi control on Sunday at a ceremony in the provincial capital Baquba.
"I consider (the handover) a major step, especially in a province that once was a hot spot, where the Awakenings had a big role in achieving security," Diyala governor Raad Rasheed told Reuters by telephone. US troops credit the guards programme - which raised a force of about 100,000 paid volunteers across the country - with helping drastically to reduce violence.
But standing down the mainly Sunni guard force will be a tricky task for the Shi'ite-led government in the coming months. Some guards say they fear being abandoned or arrested. Iraq says it will take a fifth of the guards nation-wide into the army and police and gradually move the rest into civilian jobs or training.
Nowhere is the handover likely to be more difficult than in ethnically and religiously mixed Diyala, where the guards have often borne the brunt of militant attacks. "If we can succeed in Diyala, we can succeed in all of Iraq," said Major-General Robert Caslen, commander of US forces in north Iraq.
US military spokesman Major Brian Tribus added: "We recognise that Diyala presents special challenges due to its diversity and history of ethnic tension ... We feel that the effort to transfer and transition (the guards) to meaningful employment is the leading edge of reconciliation in Iraq." The Iraqi government took responsibility for more than half the guards last year, beginning with the capital Baghdad.
This month it takes over the guards in three southern provinces as well as Diyala, and it will take responsibility for the rest by early April. The United States has pledged to remove its combat troops from the streets of Iraqi towns by the middle of this year and withdraw from the country by the end of 2011.
Diyala, where al Qaeda Sunni militants have made a stand after being driven from other areas, has remained one of the most violent parts of Iraq. But authorities say it is getting calmer as Iraqi forces take a bigger security role.