Shiite leader: Sunni help is key in extremist battles

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Former Sunni insurgents — wearing masks and wailing in grief — joined a funeral procession Friday for a leader killed for turning his guns on Islamic extremists instead of America in a contested city that al-Qaida in Iraq once considered its capital.

The burial of 29-year-old Naseer Salam al-Maamouri, placed in a coffin draped with the Iraqi flag, also served as a show of resolve for the tribes that have chosen to back the U.S.-led struggle to regain control of Baqouba, the strategic urban hub of Diyala province northeast of Baghdad.

For the moment, the tribal militias — known as Awakening Councils, Concerned Citizens and other names — have given U.S. and Iraqi forces a key advantage in seeking to clear extremist-held pockets in and around Baghdad. But the Sunni militiamen are demanding something in return: permanent jobs and influence in Iraq’s security forces.

The Shiite-led government has been slow to respond, despite Washington’s fears that the tribal support could collapse into chaos without swift integration into the standing forces.

Mixed messages were delivered Friday by the head of the nation’s biggest Shiite political party.

Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraq Council, praised the help of the Sunni militias — comments that could increase pressure on the government to open more room for the fighters.

But he also insisted the groups must submit to government authority, reflecting Shiite worries that the armed Sunni factions could evolve into a rebel movement.

“I want to remind people about the role that our police and army forces are playing, as well the Awakening Councils and the tribes,” al-Hakim told about 5,000 faithful during a sermon in southwest Baghdad. “They are practicing an honorable national role, they are expressing the unity of Iraqis in confronting the enemies of Iraq.”

Al-Hakim tempered his praise of the tribal fighters with a warning that they must remain “on the side of the government in chasing terrorists and criminals, but not be a substitute for it.”

“Weapons should be within the hands of the government only,” he added.