Hmm…not quite sure what to make of this, from today’s Washington Times:

Sunni “fence sitters” in Iraq say they would be willing to take on master terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi and rid the country of foreign saboteurs if the Shi’ite-run government’s new political structure is acceptable to them, according to a senior U.S. official.

“The Iraqis will kill every foreigner who comes into their neighborhood when they’re ready,” said the senior official who has spent months in Iraq. “They don’t want foreigners in Iraq.”

The official, who has held numerous meetings with what he called “influential fence sitters,” said the representatives have told him they are only tolerating foreign terrorists because they are a “pressure tool” to force the Shi’ites and the U.S. to consider Sunni political demands for more representation in the Baghdad government.

“We’ll catch him when we’re ready,” the official quoted one Sunni as telling him, referring to Zarqawi.

Well, I’m ready for Zarqawi to be caught/killed. Could this be some wild claim by the Sunnis used for leverage in talks with US officials?

Update (Chad):
One thing to keep in mind through this though is that there are many Sunni leaders in Iraq which have publically called the new Iraqi government a paper government, or something to that effect. While Mac may be right that this is a political ploy, I’m not certain that these particular Sunnis know enough about politics in a Democratic government to know what is a good ploy versus a bad ploy.

I also believe this would effect the further inclusion of more Sunnis into the Iraq Parliament instead of talks with the U.S. military. After all, it was the Sunnis whom controlled Iraq under Saddam. Many of the Sunni leaders are going through power-withdrawal and desperately want some of that power back.

To the new Iraqi government’s credit, they have bent over backwards to try to include Sunnis though I have no doubt there is still work to be done. It would definitely be an interesting turn of events if even more Iraqis turned against Zarqawi and Al Qaida in Iraq. Already we have the majority of the Shiites and Kurds against the group, but having more Sunnis would be a wonderful added bonus.

It should also be mentioned that Zarqawi and Al Qaida in Iraq reportedly travel through heavily Sunni areas as the majority of Al Qaida as a whole are in fact Sunni. All it takes is one tipster to locate Zarqawi and hundreds of Coalition soldiers would be knocking at the door.