A Few AQ Cracks

First Anbar, then Diyala province, now a Sunni sector of Baghdad is turning against al-Qaeda as the surge takes hold. Background from Bill Roggio. The Times:

Fed up with being part of a group that cuts off a person’s face with piano wire to teach others a lesson, dozens of low-level members of al-Qaeda in Iraq are daring to become informants for the US military in a hostile Baghdad neighbourhood.

The ground-breaking move in Doura is part of a wider trend that has started in other al-Qaeda hotspots across the country and in which Sunni insurgent groups and tribal sheikhs have stood together with the coalition against the extremist movement. [snip]

It is impossible to corroborate the claims, but he said that scores of junior al-Qaeda in Iraq members there had become informants since May, including one low-level cell leader who gave vital information after his arrest.

“He gave us dates, places and names and who did what,” Lieutenant Danly said. When asked why he was being so forthcoming, the man said: “Because I am sick of it and I hate them, and I am done.”

And an AQ family feud? At HotAir.

UPDATE: This snippet from the Newsweek article cited by HotAir:

Bin Laden himself has not personally intervened to end the internal feud, according to the jihadist sources. For security reasons he rarely has face-to-face meetings with his deputies. “He doesn’t want to get involved,” says Khan. “He’s already too busy with strategic planning and inspirational duties and with directing his own security.” Instead, bin Laden has tried to resolve the dispute by dividing duties between the two factions and appointing a pair of mediators, these sources say.

I commend Jesse Jackson (for a small fee--please, please no in-kind contributions) and Jimmy Carter to Osama. Give peace a chance.