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Saddam aide Izzat Ibrahim captured
The most-wanted Saddam Hussein aide in Iraq, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, was captured in the town of Tikrit yesterday, Iraq’s defence ministry said. 70 of the man’s supporters were killed and 80 captured when they tried to prevent him being seized. Ibrahim was captured by members of Iraq’s national guard backed by US forces. Tikrit was Saddam’s hometown and one of the powerbases of his regime.
Iraqi Minister of State Wael Abdul al-Latif told Reuters it was “75 to 90 percent certain” the captured man was Ibrahim. He said the captured man was suffering from leukaemia. It has long been rumoured that Ibrahim was suffering from the disease. The U.S. military has said Ibrahim was directly involved in organising and funding attacks on US forces since the fall of Saddam. There was a $10 million bounty on his head, and in a deck of cards issued to US troops to help them identify fugitives, Ibrahim was the King of Clubs.
The news spread fast in Baghdad, and in some Shi’ite districts residents fired AK-47s in the air in celebration.
Ibrahim was Saddam’s number two in the Revolutionary Command Council, and held a senior post on a government committee in charge of northern Iraq when chemical weapons were used against the town of Halabja in 1988, killing thousands of Kurds.
He was sixth on the US list of the 55 most-wanted members of Saddam’s deposed regime. The top five on the list, including Saddam, his sons Qusay and Uday and “Chemical Ali” Hassan al-Majid, have already been captured or killed.
<B>Four decades of comradeship</B>
The seventh most-wanted man on the list, Special Security Organisation Director Hani Abd Latif Tilfah al-Tikriti, is still at large.
The relationship between Saddam and Ibrahim goes back nearly four decades. The two men were among the leading plotters of the 1968 coup which returned the Baath party to power in Baghdad.
Ever since, Ibrahim was one of Saddam’s top aides and most trusted confidants. His daughter was briefly married to Saddam’s elder son Uday, bonding him within the ruling elite.
The red-haired Ibrahim was born in 1942 near Tikrit, 160 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad. His father was an ice seller.
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