Emergence of those groups, which include former insurgents and former Saddam Hussein loyalists, was a key reason behind the decline in violence, especially in areas where Al Qaeda and other Sunni militants once ruled.
But the Shi'ite-led government remains suspicious of the Awakening Councils, believing they are little more than armed Sunni militias that could turn their guns on the Shi'ites some day.
The US military has been managing and paying the volunteers to help provide security in neighborhoods, towns, and villages but plans to transfer that responsibility to the Iraqi government starting next month.
In an order issued yesterday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged to integrate about 20 percent of the volunteers into the army or police and find government jobs for the rest as vacancies appear.
"We will keep paying the salaries until jobs are offered," Maliki's order said.
Despite that pledge, the government has questioned US figures on the number of Awakening Council members.
The US military believes the figure is about 99,000 based on a headcount this year. The US gathered iris scans and other information on each volunteer fighter to make sure the list was accurate, US military officials say.
"We think the publicly announced figure is incorrect and there are bogus lists of members who get salaries from the Americans," chief government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Al-Arabiya television late Sunday.
He said the government believed the real figure was no more than 50,000 - or about half the American count. He also suggested some members may be purged.
"We need to separate the bad elements inside the Awakening Councils," Dabbagh added. "There are groups that work in the name of Awakening Councils but they attack other council members."
One prominent Awakening Council leader insisted that the Americans had been methodical in tallying the number of Sunni volunteers.
"I think al-Dabbagh's claim is untrue and baseless," Sheik Qais Dhiyab Ahmed, head of the Awakening Council in Balad, told the Associated Press. "We don't accept the notion of some Iraqi lawmakers that we are militias. Members of the Awakening Councils are fighting Al Qaeda and we have many martyrs."
Nevertheless, suspicion of the councils runs deep among Shi'ite politicians, many of whom fled the country for Iran and Syria during Saddam's crackdowns against the majority religious community.
The mostly Shi'ite security services have also been arresting some Awakening Council figures in Diyala province, Baghdad and elsewhere, accusing them of various crimes and working with the insurgents.
Last week, Ahmed Abu Risha, head of the Awakening Council in Anbar province where the revolt against Al Qaeda began, appealed to the government to acknowledge the role of Sunnis who turned against the terror movement and stop complaining about their past links to Saddam's regime.
