ON SUNNI COLLABORATION WITH THE U.S.

There is one drawback to our new found friends, the Sunni militias.

Aided by U.S., militants widen reach
A Sunni group, partners in the fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq,
is becoming more ambitious. Some fear it can't be trusted.
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, LATimes Staff Writer
August 4, 2007

BAGHDAD — The leader of the Revolutionaries of Amiriya sits in his headquarters in an abandoned high school here, explaining the militant group's latest mission: policing and rebuilding Sunni Muslim neighborhoods."We need to return the services to the neighborhoods. Al Qaeda destroyed streets, schools, electricity, even mobile phone towers," said the man known as Abu Abed, or Saif. "They made the people here desperate."

"You don't know how far you can trust them a few months from now," said Sgt. David Alexander, 24, of Amarillo, Texas, stationed in a bombed-out bunker near the group's office. "They're with us now because we have a common goal. But what happens when we kill all the Al Qaeda guys? … If they want to go out and capture somebody for revenge, there's nobody to prevent them from doing that."

Saif seemed to confirm those fears, saying that even as his men become Iraqi police officers, they will continue to go after Shiite militias to avenge dead comrades, including his brothers. "It is our nature as Iraqis," he said. "We have revenge issues."