Baghdad – A former aide to late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and a leader of Iraq’s insurgency, Ezzat Ibrahim al-Douri, may have been killed by Iraqi forces and Shi’ite militias involved in an operation against insurgent forces.
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Raed al-Jubouri, the governor of Salahuddin province, told al-Arabiya television that al-Douri had been killed, and the station broadcast a photo of a dead man who looked like al-Douri.
“This is a major victory for those involved in the operation,” al-Jubouri said. “He is considered a mastermind for this terrorist group,” he said, referring to Islamic State, an offshoot of al Qaeda which has taken swathes of Syria and Iraq.
“For sure this will have an impact on them … There will be a break among them,” he said.
Baghdad has mounted an offensive against Islamic State and former Baathists once loyal to Saddam Hussein to retake territory in Iraq’s Sunni heartland captured by jihadists last summer. Al-Douri was believed to be a key figure in that insurgency.
While Baghdad has announced al-Douri’s death several times before, this time photos were circulating showing a man with similar features and red hair like al-Douri’s. DNA from the body will be tested to confirm it is him, al-Jubouri.
Ahmed al-Kraim, the head of Salahuddin provincial council, said news of al-Douri’s death was not confirmed and intelligence officers who tracked his movements did not believe he was the man in the photographs.
Khaled Jassam, a member of the security committee in Salahuddin provincial council, said the committee were 70 percent sure al-Douri had been killed but were awaiting medical tests.
Are all of those mustaches real?
One can say all the negative things they want to say, about Saddam and his henchmen, on the deck of cards. The fact of the matter is that when Saddam was in power, there was law and order in Iraq. There was no sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni factions, and no suicide bombings. Saddam kept all of those factions in check. Granted, he was not an angel. However, Iraq has never been ready for democracy, and will never be ready for democracy. The US invasion of Iraq, in 2003, which deposed Saddam, destabilized that area, and led to the creation of ISIS. If Saddam had still been in power, there never would have been an ISIS.