Khalil Mohammed Abbas, a haggard, chainsmoking ex-Iraqi army officer, has good reason to puff on every cigarette as if it were his last.

After helping his neighbours in Baghdad rise up against the al-Qa’eda thugs who have terrorised them, he lives in constant expectation that the threats text-messaged to his mobile phone may one day come real.

“They are from al-Qa’eda, and they tell me I am a mercenary,” he says, reading out the latest missive to bleep into his inbox.

“They ask how I would feel if they kidnapped my wife and children and kill and rape them. But I am not worried about those bastards. I know they could kill me at any moment, but if we do not fight them we will all die anyway.”

The man al-Qa’eda describe as a mercenary is indeed a hired gun of sorts, however – as a leader of the so-called Sunni Muslim “Awakening”, he is one of around 500 residents in his neighbourhood paid by US forces to help drive al-Qa’eda from their midst.

Many of his comrades previously saw the Americans as their enemies, but their decision to change sides is not just for the money: after two years of al-Qa’eda violence, their hatred of the terrorist group outweighs any lingering dislike of the US “occupiers”.

Lee ADDS: Why not bring his family to America, safe keep them, and bring them home safely when the time comes?