Iraq’s unpaid Awakening Councils

Awakening Councils have been credited with bringing relative security to towns and cities in Iraq.

Local Sunni fighters opted to stop fighting US-led forces in 2006, and help them fight al-Qaeda instead.

They are still on patrol, but they haven’t been paid since the US handed over its command to the Iraqi government.

Al Jazeera’s Omar Al-Saleh gained rare access to the city of Samarra and sent this report.