Top fugitive from Saddam’s regime believed to be dead
Officials trying to confirm body is that of former deputy who was allied with ISIS
BAGHDAD— Iraqi officials said Friday they believe that government forces killed Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the former deputy of Saddam Hussein, who for more than a decade was the top fugitive from the ousted regime and became an underground figure involved in Sunni insurgencies, most recently allying with Islamic State militants.
It was not the first time Iraqi officials claimed to have killed or captured al-Douri, who was the “king of clubs” in the deck of playing cards issued to help U.S. troops identify key regime fugitives after the 2003 U.S.led invasion ousted Saddam.
DNA tests were underway to confirm the identity of the body, Iraqi intelligence officials said. In 2013, the Iraqi government said it arrested alDouri, circulating a photo of a bearded man who resembled the former Baathist. It later said it was a case of mistaken identity.
Reports of al-Douri’s death came as Iraqi forces are trying to push back Islamic State fighters in Salahuddin, the central Iraqi province where Tikrit is located. Government troops took back several towns near the country’s largest oil refinery at Baiji, officials said.
Gen. Ayad al-Lahabi, a commander with the Salahuddin Command Centre, said the military, backed by U.S.led coalition airstrikes and Shiite and Sunni militias dubbed the Popular Mobilization Forces, gained control of the towns of al-Malha and al-Mazraah, located three kilometres south of the Baiji oil refinery, killing at least 160 militants with the Islamic State.
Further north, a large car bomb ex- ploded Friday afternoon next to the U.S. Consulate in the northern city of Erbil, a rare attack in the capital of the Kurdish autonomous zone. Iraqi police officials said three people were killed and five were wounded in the bombing. U.S. officials said there were no American casualties or casualties among consulate personnel or guards.
The blast went off outside a café next to the building in Erbil’s Ankawa neighbourhood, setting several nearby cars on fire. Shortly afterward, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Erbil attack, as reported the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks militant websites.
According to the governor of Salahuddin, Raed al-Jabouri, al-Douri was killed by Iraqi troops and Shiite militiamen in an operation in the Talal Hamreen mountains east of Tikrit, Saddam’s hometown, which was retaken from the Islamic State this month.
Troops opened fire at a convoy carrying al-Douri and nine bodyguards, killing all of them, Gen. Haider alBasri, a senior Iraqi commander, told Iraqi state TV.
The government issued several photos showing a body purported to be al-Douri. The body had a bright red beard, perhaps dyed, and a ginger-coloured moustache. Al-Douri was a fair-skinned redhead with a ginger moustache, making him distinctive among Saddam’s inner circle.
Al-Douri was officially the No. 2 man in Iraq’s ruling hierarchy. He served as vice-chairman of Saddam’s Revolutionary Command Council and was one of Saddam’s few longtime confidants. His daughter was married briefly to Saddam’s son, Odai, who was killed with his brother, Qusai, by U.S. troops in Mosul.
When Saddam’s Baathist regime collapsed as U.S. troops occupied Baghdad, al-Douri disappeared. He was No. 6 on the most-wanted list of 55 Iraqis after the invasion. When Saddam was killed months later and more regime figures were caught, alDouri became the most prominent fugitive — and U.S. authorities soon linked him to the Sunni insurgencies that erupted against the U.S. occupation and the Shiite-led government that replaced Saddam.
Early in the war, U.S. authorities linked al-Douri to Ansar al-Islam, a militant group with ties to Al Qaeda, and he was accused of being a major financier of the insurgency. Sunni former officers from Saddam’s military and police were believed to have played large roles in the insurgency, whether with Al Qaeda or other factions.
Al-Douri emerged as a leader of the shadowy Army of the Men of the Naqshabandi Order. The group depicts itself as a nationalist force defending Iraq’s Sunni minority from Shiite rule and as an alternative to the extremist version of Islam championed by Al Qaeda. But last year, when the Islamic State launched a blitz across much of western and northern Iraq, al-Douri, the Naqshabandi Army and other former Saddam-era officers are reported to have entered a shaky alliance with the extremist group.