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Saddam's top aide Ibrahim captured
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-05 22:26

Iraqi and U.S. forces arrested a man believed to be the most-wanted Saddam Hussein aide still on the run in a bloody raid on Sunday in which 70 of his supporters were killed and 80 captured, the government said.

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who had been the most senior aide to Saddam Hussein still on the run in Iraq, has been captured in the town of Tikrit, Iraq's defence ministry said on September 5, 2004. The ministry said Ibrahim was captured by members of Iraq's national guard backed by U.S. forces. Tikrit was Saddam's hometown and one of the powerbases of his regime. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri (L) in his former position as Vice-Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council presents Hussein with a medal from the people of Mosul, a town some 390 km north of Baghdad, in this May 12, 1999 hand out file photograph. [Reuters]

The defense ministry said Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri -- who was sixth on the U.S. list of the 55 most-wanted members of Saddam's regime and had a $10 million price on his head -- was captured in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown and powerbase north of Baghdad.

The top five on the list, including Saddam, his sons Uday and Qusay, and "Chemical Ali" Hassan al-Majid, have already been captured or killed. The seventh most-wanted man on the list, Special Security Organization Director Hani Abd Latif Tilfah al-Tikriti, is still at large.

Iraqi Minister of State Wael Abdul al-Latif told Reuters it was "75 to 90 percent certain" the captured man was Ibrahim. He said 70 of the man's supporters were killed and 80 captured when they tried to prevent him being seized.

Latif said the captured man was suffering from leukemia and was in very poor health.

The U.S. military has said Ibrahim was directly involved in organizing and funding attacks on U.S. forces since the downfall of Saddam. 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.

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who had been the most senior aide to Saddam Hussein still on the run in Iraq, has been captured in the town of Tikrit, Iraq's defence ministry said on September 5, 2004. The ministry said Ibrahim was captured by members of Iraq's national guard backed by U.S. forces. Tikrit was Saddam's hometown and one of the powerbases of his regime. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri (C) in his former position as Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council salutes during a parade in the city of Mosul, 390 km north of Baghdad in this February 4, 2003 file photograph. [Reuters]

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.

The red-haired Ibrahim was born in 1942 near Tikrit, 100 miles north of Baghdad, the son of an ice seller.

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.

WELCOME BOOST FOR GOVERNMENT

If confirmed, the news will be a welcome boost for Iraq's interim government as it tries to crush a deadly insurgency and grapples with a hostage crisis.

France's government said on Sunday it remained hopeful that two French hostages would be freed, although its foreign minister returned empty-handed from a Middle East mission intended to secure their release.

"We have serious reasons to believe both of them are in good health and that a favorable outcome is possible," Foreign Minister Michel Barnier told reporters after discussing the hostage crisis with President Jacques Chirac.

"Our top priority today remains to secure their release. Our priority is their safety," he said. "We are working hard, calmly, cautiously and discreetly."

Journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot were seized on Aug. 20 by militants from the Islamic Army in Iraq, who demanded Paris rescind a law banning Muslim headscarves in state schools. France refused the demands and the law went into force on Thursday.

France was shocked to be caught up in the hostage crisis as it opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq and has no troops there.

Militant groups waging a bloody insurgency against the U.S.-backed interim Iraqi government have turned to kidnapping foreigners as part of a campaign to force firms and foreign troops to leave Iraq. About two dozen foreign hostages have been killed, some of them beheaded.

Police said on Sunday the body of an Egyptian who was kidnapped last month had been found in northern Iraq.

The body of the Egyptian, who was snatched on Aug. 27, was found on Saturday at a roadside near the town of Baiji, 112 miles north of Baghdad, police said. They said the body bore signs of torture, with hands and legs bound together.

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