Government officials play down the defections and they are by no means universal -- in the large Sunni-majority provinces of Anbar and Salaheddin, commanders say their forces have remained loyal.

But in Diyala province north of Baghdad and in Dora on the capital's southern outskirts, militia chiefs say that a sharp fall in their fighter numbers has left the field open to an Al-Qaeda resurgence.

"I estimate 15 percent of the 14,500 Sahwa (Awakening) fighters in Diyala have rallied to Al-Qaeda," the militia's commander for the province's western sector, Khalil al-Karkhi, told AFP.

Karkhi said the defections were being driven by a "lack of confidence in the government which has withdrawn our weapons permits, a sense of insecurity because the security forces can confiscate our weapons, and late payment or non-payment of our wages."

Recruited by the US military from among Sunni tribesmen and former insurgents starting in 2006, the force totalled some 118,000 fighters when responsibility for it passed to the Iraqi government in April 2009.

Baghdad undertook to absorb 20 percent of the militiamen into the regular police and army, and find civil service jobs for the remainder but there have been persistent complaints from Sahwa ranks that the government has failed to live up to its promises.

Karkhi said the militia's strength in Diyala province, an Al-Qaeda stronghold where its notorious Iraq commander Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a US air raid in 2006, was now down to just 7,000 and that the remainder were coming under repeated jihadist attack.

He said the problem was not just militiamen deserting to join Al-Qaeda but their working for it from within.

"I can assure you that Al-Qaeda has spies in our ranks and they are very difficult to root out," he said.

Shallal al-Nuaimi, the militia's commander in the Hashmiat neighbourhood of the provincial capital Baquba, agreed that infiltration was a problem.

"Several times when we have arrested terrorists, we have been shocked to discover that they were still enlisted our ranks," he said.

"Many of our fighters have left to find work and 2,000 have managed to join the police or army through their personal connections, but others have simply rejoined Al-Qaeda."

Nuaimi said the Iraqi authorities were driving militiamen who were former Al-Qaeda fighters back into the arms of the jihadists by prosecuting them for their activities before they joined the Sahwa.

"The security forces keep arresting our fighters for their past membership of Al-Qaeda and, while the families of militiamen who are killed or wounded receive no compensation, Al-Qaeda pays 250,000 dinars (210 dollars) for every attack."

In another longtime bastion of Al-Qaeda, the Dora district of south Baghdad, a Sahwa commander said it was not just defections that were undermining the militia's ability to keep the jihadists in check.

From a high of 2,500 fighters, the force's strength in the district has fallen to just 200, Mohammed al-Gartani said.

"A few dozen of our fighters have rallied to Al-Qaeda, particularly in the rural areas around Dora," Gartani told AFP.

"More than the desertions it is the overall fall in our numbers that is leaving the field open to Al-Qaeda."

Both Diyala province and Dora have been particular hotspots in the fight against the jihadists, but in other areas Sahwa commanders said they had had no problems with defections.

"I have seen nothing of the sort and, if it did happen, I would execute the traitors without the slightest remorse," said Khaled Flaih, a militia chief in the Salaheddin province town of Samarra, scene of two of Al-Qaeda's most notorious attacks against a revered Shiite shrine in 2006 and 2007.

A senior official responsible for the militia, also known as the Sons of Iraq, denied that the government had been undermining the Sahwa and said that it retained 52,000 fighters in the field.

"There have been no delays in paying their wages. In any case, the Sons of Iraq are not mercenaries, they are patriots who are helping the security forces," Zuheir al-Chalabi said.

An aide to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the scale of defections was being exaggerated.

"Perhaps there have been a few violations by one or two people, as can happen in any security service, but the Sons of Iraq are playing a leading role in the protection of our country," Ali al-Mussawi said.

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