BAGHDAD — Along with a new year, Iraq is ringing in an important step toward national reconciliation Jan. 1 when the nation’s government takes over control of the “Sons of Iraq” (SoI) citizen security groups from Coalition forces in four key provinces across the country, including Diyala.

In all, 76 percent of the nation’s SoI members will be under Iraqi government responsibility by New Year’s Day.

“We are beyond the tipping point with the Sons of Iraq,” Army Lt. Col. Jeffrey Kulmayer, chief of reconciliation and engagement for Multi-National Corps - Iraq, said. “They have invested in the future of Iraq, and the Iraqi government is offering them hope in the future. They’re going to be part of that.”

The transfer marks a dramatic turnaround in Diyala province in particular, officials said.

“Diyala is a small Iraq,” retired Iraqi Army Maj. Gen. Muzhir al-Mawla, vice chairman of the Iraqi Follow-Up Committee for National Reconciliation, said. Home to Kurds as well as Sunni and Shiia Iraqis, the region is more varied than Baghdad, where SoI members already have been transferred to Iraqi control.

In 2007, the mostly Sunni area northeast of Baghdad had been considered one of the most dangerous provinces in Iraq, and it lacked the infrastructure to support many basic services for its residents. As al-Qaida in Iraq targeted innocent men, women and children in areas such as Diyala, concerned local citizens joined a movement called the “Awakening” and organized neighborhood watches to roll back terrorist gains in their communities.

The following year, the movement’s members, who came to be known as the “Sons of Iraq,” joined forces with the Coalition to fight al-Qaida in Iraq. The addition of more than 100,000 SoI members helped to thicken the security forces and enabled the improved security environment experienced today, officials said.

“They have been critical to finding caches, bringing down [improvised explosive devices], keeping al-Qaida out of the towns, because they know everybody,” Kulmayer said. “They know who’s who in their towns and villages.”

Now, after helping to bring greater stability to the region, 20,000 SoI members in Diyala, Babil, Wasit and Qadisiyah provinces will have opportunities to serve their country in new roles. In early December, they began to register with the Iraqi government to receive regular paychecks.

As responsibility for the SoI transfers to the government Jan. 1, the group’s members will transition into a variety of meaningful jobs intended to secure the nation’s future. Twenty percent are slated to join the Iraqi Army or Police, and the rest will enter public or private employment in a variety of roles, from civil engineering to electrical maintenance to working in the government’s multiple ministries, officials said.

“The goal of this program is to eventually hire these people into meaningful jobs,” Army Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin III, commander of Multi-National Corps - Iraq, said. “While many of them are working in security positions right now, ultimately they’ll transition and go into other meaningful jobs, and that’s the goal.”