BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US military will this week begin handing over control of 100,000 Sunni anti-Qaeda fighters to Iraq's Shia-led government, a move that risks undermining hard-earned security gains. The Iraqi government and the US military have agreed in principle to the transfer of responsibility of all "Sons of Iraq" from October 1, beginning with 54,000 men in the province of Baghdad. The US military uses the term Sons of Iraq, or "SOIs," to refer to the militia, also known as Sahwa (Awakening) Councils, which it recruited from among Sunni tribesmen and former insurgents. Iraq will start paying the salaries of Sahwa men in Baghdad, a monthly bill of around 15 million dollars, from November 10, Major General Jeffery Hammond, commander of US forces in the Iraqi capital, told reporters. Control of the remaining Sahwas in Sunni areas of central, western and north-central Iraq will be transferred gradually, according to US and Iraqi officials. The fighters, mostly former insurgents who fought US and Iraqi forces in the aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, have helped curb the violence since late 2006 after they sided with the Americans to battle Al-Qaeda. Baghdad has said 20 percent of the fighters would be absorbed into the country's security forces and that most of the remainder would be considered for civilian jobs. However, if the transfer does not take place smoothly, Iraq risks erasing security gains achieved since late last year, according to some Sahwa leaders, lawmakers and analysts. Abu Safan, a Sahwa leader in the Baghdad district of Adhamiyah and one-time bastion, said he is concerned with what happens to the 80 percent of fighters who don't make it to the security forces. "The 20 percent who join security forces would be fine, but what about the remaining 80 percent. They should be protected as they would become easy targets of Al-Qaeda," Safan told AFP. "We are happy to be with the Iraqi government, but a lot of things are still uncertain." Some Iraqi lawmakers claim Baghdad regards these fighters with suspicion. "The Shia government looks at them as a political enemy. It sees them as Arab Sunni fighters who were former Al-Qaeda or insurgents fighting the government and they have to be punished," said Kurdish MP Mahmud Othman. But Baghdad has sought to reassure the Sahwas that they would be looked after. "The government of Iraq has assumed responsibility for assuring the economic future of the Sahwa volunteers by integrating them into the security forces or assisting them with vocational training or other programmes," national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie told AFP. "The government will ensure they have jobs and are not left unemployed and unappreciated." US commanders have said they will help to ensure a smooth transition but warned that those fighters who do not find employment could be tempted to return to insurgent activities. "The Sons of Iraq have paid a heavy price fighting Al-Qaeda with us," Hammond said. "The whole world is watching what the government does with SOI transition, above all in Baghdad where it starts," he said. "Guys who are not successful, they could be back on streets, angry, Al-Qaeda will be recruiting them, and we take a step in the wrong direction." Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group also said the Americans were eager for Iraq to pay for these men using its petrodollars " with oil revenue at more than 50 billion dollars last year. But he said the real problem was not the transfer, but the absorption of the militiamen. "This is partly a matter of capacity but mostly a matter of will, which revolves around trust, or the lack thereof," he said.  "It is very likely that as a result of mutual distrust the integration of the SOI into the state apparatus, security forces and jobs will be less than optimal. "In that case it is very likely that elements of the SOI will revert to insurgency as a way, probably unsuccessful, of achieving their objectives of rolling back Iranian influence and regaining power."