Iraqi defense minister: Sunni tribal militias won't become separate army

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Iraq's Shi'ite-led government declared Saturday it will disband Sunni groups battling Islamic extremists after restive areas are calmed because it does not want them to become a separate military force. In Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets, the military said, in the third confirmed cross-border offensive by Turkish forces in less than a week. The statement from Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi was the government's most explicit declaration yet of its intent to ebventually dismantle the groups backed and funded by the United States as a vital tool for reducing violence. The militias, more than 70,000-strong and often made up of former insurgents, are known as Awakening Councils, or Concerned Local Citizens.