In the future, the unit will be attached to the new Iraqi army.
Before dawn on Friday, gunmen fired automatic rifles at a group of civil defense officers manning a checkpoint in a nearby village, though no one was injured.
Wearing the brown uniforms and metal helmets of the old Iraqi army and carrying rifles seized during raids by US forces, a small group marches through Tikrit's narrow, muddy streets.
Some of them, as young as 15 years old, are goofing around. One gestures playfully with his rifle for a group of children.
Another dangles his weapon loosely at his side, a lit cigarette in the other hand.
Some of them ask for the chocolate that the US soldiers hand out to the children.
"They are great at what they do, but ... if you don't supervise them they start slacking off," Olveraleija said.
He added that some small-time crooks among them have abused their new power.
One group pressured a gas station owner to give them free gas and let them jump to the front of lines that have grown long because of fuel shortages.
On a few occasions, some in the Iraqi corps have mistakenly fired on their own men, Olveraleija said.
Once, while guarding an entrance to the US base, they sprayed bullets at a car carrying their returning comrades. No one was hurt.
"The good thing is they can't hit anything," Olveraleija said.
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