While Iraqi opposition politicians try to get their act together for a new administration, members of the US-organized militia are basking in a triumphant return to a country they had to flee and their role as the US military's most trusted link to ordinary Iraqis.

In a devastated post-war country where nothing is clear, the FIF lurks in the background as a shadowy presence.

Few people know exactly who they are, or how numerous, apart from some 700 posted with US forces in the southern city of Nasiriyah. Nor is it evident what they are supposed to be doing or whether anyone trusts them.

Talib Zangana, one of the FIF officers who work the lobby of the city's Palestine Hotel liaising with the US marines and local powerbrokers, said his group was playing a large role in "filling the vacuum" left by the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.

"We are very active in this operation," he said, but stressed his group's role was only as a "bridge" between the US forces and the people.

"No military in the world is capable of running the war and running the city. Our job is to go among the community to find out what are the problems and try to use the (US) military capability to solve that problem."

He also insisted his group, which has become closely linked with the front-running political opposition faction, Ahmed Chabali's Iraqi National Congress (INC), has the support of the vast majority of Iraqis.

He said the FIF, whose members dress in sand-colored fatiques left over from the last Gulf War and claims to have already assumed control of the southern town of Al-Shatra, near Nasiriyah, was not here to stay and has no interest in power.

"The FIF is a small sector of Iraqi society. We are different ideologies. From Shiites to ones who are almost communist. But we reflect exactly what all Iraqis feel," said the native Kurd who spent the past quarter century in San Diego fixing cars' emissions to meet California's strict smog control rules.

The FIF was established in the run-up to the war by the US Department of Defence. Members volunteered from around the world, but largely western Europe. Most were civilians linked by a terrible hatred for Saddam. Many say they lost loved ones to the regime.

They have been trained by US forces, partly in Hungary, in basic military skills. The US military was authorized to train up to 3,000 of them, although Zangana refused to say how many are in Iraq or even who their commander is.

He also denied a CNN report that up to 150 of its members had entered a southern Baghdad neighbourhood on Wednesday with US special forces and were conducting patrols and arresting looters.

However, they were attached to various US regiments as they rolled north through the country with the invasion launched on March 20, usually acting as translators with support units. They went into villages to find out if they were friendly or hostile, and negotiated with local and tribal chiefs on behalf of the US officers.

They also helped retrieve bodies of Iraqi civilians killed in the fighting, making sure at least one young girl received a proper burial.

But when asked about the FIF on a street in downtown Bagdad, a group of Iraqis erupted into a fierce debate. Some said they did not have faith in the returnees and viewed them as American lapdogs. Others said they would wait to see if they could fulfil promises to help them.

"This group lived in America for a long time. Why did this group not help make a revolution in Iraq without help from America?" asked Imam al-Baiati, a 24-year-old student. "I don't trust them."

However, beside him, taxi driver Mohammed Hafez said simply that "Iraqis will trust anyone who wants to make things better than before," but warned his support would depend on "the quality of their work."

"We've seen hell for 35 years."

SPACE.WIRE