The Los Angeles Times carries a feature on the Sahwa ("Awakening") movement of Sunni fighters. The reporter, Peter Spiegel, notes that U.S. officials are making a big push for the Iraqi government -- that would be the Shia-dominated government -- to open the door to Sunni participation, including the Sahwa fighters. It quotes an aide to outgoing General Ray Odierno thusly:

"If it doesn't embrace it, you could have the different Sunni Awakenings coming together as a Sunni army that tries to overthrow the government, pushing the country into civil war," the aide said. "It's possible."

Adds the piece:

Odierno has had a series of lengthy and intense meetings with Iraqi officials to sell them on the idea and said last month that the two sides have agreed to a series of "very strict" requirements to temper Iraqi concerns.

Among them are restrictions on the citizens groups operating outside the control of the U.S. military or Iraqi government and a limitation on the number of group members who will be moved into the formal security forces.

Iraqi officials have raised concerns that citizens groups have been infiltrated by hard-core insurgents, a possibility U.S. officials have openly acknowledged.

"Are there people trying to infiltrate them? Yes," Odierno said. "But we can sort through that. The majority of them just want to be part of the government of Iraq. Before, there was no avenue for them to become part of the government of Iraq."

Meanwhile, RFE/RL reports that pro-Sunni Iraqi media say that Iran has created death squads to target Sahwa leaders, many of whom have been assassinated recently, especially in the area around Baghdad:

The pro-Ba'athist Sunni website "Quds Press" and the Sunni-led Iraqi Islamic Party's website (the party is a member of the Al-Tawafuq bloc) published reports this week, citing unidentified intelligence sources, that Iran's Qods Force has formed special brigades to assassinate awakening council members. The source said the brigades are comprised of rogue Al-Mahdi Army militiamen.

It doesn't help that PM Maliki is claiming that Sahwa has been infiltrated by evildoers:

"We, as a government, have intelligence information: the Ba'ath Party has ordered its members to join the awakening councils, and Al-Qaeda has ordered its members to infiltrate the awakening councils," [Maliki] claimed. Al-Maliki said the government's scrutiny of awakening council members "is for their protection from infiltration."