We've written several times about the growing rift between al Qaeda In Iraq and the Sunni population there. This is important, since al Qaeda is a predominantly if not exclusively Sunni organization, and at one point Sunni Baathists were largely cooperating with al Qaeda's "foreign fighters."

No longer, as the Associated Press reports: "Some Sunnis Targeting al-Qaida in Iraq":

Residents reported curious declarations hanging from mosque walls and market stalls recently in Ramadi, the Sunni Muslim insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad. The fliers said Iraqi militants had turned on and were killing foreign al-Qaida fighters, their one-time allies.

A local tribal leader and Iraq's Defense Ministry have said followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, have begun fleeing Anbar province and Ramadi, its capital, to cities and mountain ranges near the Iranian border.

The article concludes:

Al-Jadaan, the Anbar tribal leader, looked confidently to the future and — if his prediction comes true — what likely will be a hero's role in the eyes of the U.S. military.

"Under my leadership and that of our brothers in other tribes, we are getting close to the shelter of this terrorist," al-Jadaan said of al-Zarqawi. "We will capture him soon."

Let's hope so. While American media are breathlessly focused on the allegedly imminent civil war between Sunni and Shia Iraqis, the bigger story may prove to be the war between Sunni Iraqis and al Qaeda terrorists.