Drop in Iraq's terrorist attacks is caused for a troops increase

Only about 20 percent of the 70,000 Iraqis working with American and Iraqi troops against Al-Qaeda are likely to be integrated into the police or military. The rest will have to be absorbed in some other way, such as through vocational training and employment programmes.

The 70,000 volunteers, many of them former Sunni insurgents, known as Concerned Local Citizens (CLC) groups and, where tribal leaders are involved as Al-Sahwa (Awakening) movements, are paid a monthly wage by the US military to confront Al-Qaeda militants who attack civilians. The 55 percent drop in attacks across Iraq is a reaction to the surge of an extra 28,500 US troops this summer and the formation of the CLC and Awakening groups.