Baghdad: An emboldened Iraqi government has launched an aggressive campaign to disband the Sons of Iraq, a US-funded force of Sunni Arab fighters that has been key to the country's fragile peace.

As the fighters' former patrons in the American military reluctantly stand by, the government is arresting prominent Sons of Iraq leaders and sending others into hiding or exile.

The Shiite-led Iraqi government has long distrusted the Sunni fighters, many of whom are former insurgents. Senior Shiite politicians openly label some of the members "murderers," and warn that there is no long-term obligation to employ the Sons of Iraq after their units are disbanded.

"The ones in Baghdad and Diyala province just changed their T-shirts. There are large numbers who were really Al Qaida. We have to really look hard for those elements without blood on their hands," said Haidar Abadi, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki's Dawa party.

Amid fears that the Sunnis' treatment could rekindle Iraq's insurgency, Americans are caught between their wish to support the fighters and their stronger ties to Al Maliki's government, which has challenged the Sunni paramilitaries as it grows confident about its own fledgling army.

"We want to have our cake and eat it too, support Al Maliki and the Sons of Iraq. ... Al Maliki wants to make that as hard for us as possible. He wants us to choose him," said Stephen Biddle, a defence expert who has served as an adviser to Gen. David Petraeus on his Iraq strategy. "What it looks like we are getting is a [Al] Maliki government that won't behave itself and wants to crush the Sons of Iraq."

The chief US military spokesman here denied that Al Maliki is targeting the Sons of Iraq, or that the Americans have tilted toward the government at the expense of the Sunni fighters.

"Just last week, the prime minister gave his personal commitment to the programme,'' said Brig. Gen. David Perkins. "They are well aware of the sacrifices the Sons of Iraq have made, that they were a critical element in bringing the security situation under control and that it is in their strategic advantage to assimilate them peacefully and orderly into Iraqi society."

Job training

Since March, Al Maliki has grown powerful after successful military operations against Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr's militia in southern Iraq and Baghdad. His transformation has provided the Americans a partner with whom they can work as they look for a way to hand over power in Iraq, the stated long-term US goal here.

The Iraqi government first challenged the US military over the Sons of Iraq programme in the spring - freezing the Iraqi committee charged with integrating the 99,000 fighters into the security forces and civilian jobs, according to a Shiite adviser to the Iraqi government.

In July, Al Maliki informed the Americans that he wanted the files on all Sons of Iraq fighters and demanded that the programme be handed over to him as soon as possible, said Mohammad Salman, the head of the reconciliation committee.

In response, the US military has drafted plans to dissolve the group by next summer: integrating 20 per cent of its members into the police and the rest into jobs as mechanics, electricians and carpenters.

"Our goal is that by June 2009, the Sons of Iraq are out of business," said Lt. Col. Jeff Kulmayer, who is charged with the Sunni paramilitary file.

So far, more than 9,000 Sunni fighters have been hired into the security forces. The government has warned that any programme to provide job training for the fighters once their paramilitary units are disbanded will be temporary.

"We have the same problems around the country. We can't just create a programme to pay some people and not others," Abadi said. Such comments raise concerns in US military circles that the fighters will be pushed back to Al Qaida in Iraq.

Many of the fighters are on the run. The Iraqi military has dismantled the group in the Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib, once a hub for militant attacks on Baghdad, and has arrested Sunni fighters in the northeastern city of Baqouba. Influential Sunni paramilitary leaders from Baghdad and Baqouba have gone into hiding or are in exile.

"In the event that the US military and government don't live up to their promises, it could turn back to a violent form of resistance," said Abu Abed, a leader from the eastern Baghdad neighbourhood of Adhamiya. "Every action breeds a reaction."