Maliki tones down criticism of Sunni police policy

BAGHDAD, June 22 (Reuters) Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said today he had been misunderstood when he appeared to criticise a US policy of arming and training Sunni Arab tribesmen in the fight against al Qaeda.

Maliki said in an interview conducted a week ago with Newsweek magazine that arming Sunni tribesmen ran the risk of creating new militias in Iraq unless they were properly vetted, the first apparent criticism of a US model used with success in western Anbar province.

''I was misunderstood ... The government is not afraid of armed tribes, it is afraid of the chaos and ill-discipline that may lead to the presence of new militias,'' Maliki said in a statement today.

''This must be done under the supervision of the Iraqi authorities and through the government,'' he said.

Maliki said in the Newsweek interview that the government wanted some Sunni tribes to be armed, but on condition those joining the new provincial police units were properly vetted to make sure they had no connection with Sunni Arab insurgents.

He said some US field commanders had made mistakes because they did not know everything about some of the people who joined the police units in Anbar, once Iraq's most violent region.

Senior U.S. military leaders have said they would cautiously continue arming and training the tribal police units and would expand the policy out of Anbar into other volatile provinces.

The strategy was developed this year as a new way to fight Sunni Islamist al Qaeda in so-called sanctuaries where there were no regular security forces. It has helped significantly reduce violence in Anbar, US military officials say.

Despite supporting the strategy, some senior US commanders voiced reservations about the role these groups would have after the fight against al Qaeda.

Maliki said a central committee had been formed to supervise the arming and training of the tribal police units.

US and Iraqi forces are engaged in major offensive operations in and around the capital aimed at giving the government space to reach a political accommodation with minority Sunni Arabs, who form the backbone of the insurgency.

REUTERS SKB RN1822