Ezzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former aide to late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and a leader of Iraq’s Sunni insurgency, may have been killed by Iraqi forces and Shi’ite militias fighting the insurgents.
Douri was killed in a military operation, Raed al-Jubouri, the governor of Salahuddin province, told Reuters. The pan-Arab television network al-Arabiya showed photos of a dead man who looked like al-Douri.
However, Khdhayer Almurshidy, a spokesman for Iraq’s former Baath party, said in comments to Iraq’s al-Hadath television that the reports were false. Al-Douri was a senior member of the party.
Al-Jubouri told Reuters that “a group of security forces went and surrounded the area and those terrorists were killed. Three of them were suicide bombers and blew themselves up. Amongst the bodies was Douri’s.”
A spokesman for Iraq’s Baath party says the reports were false
He said the operation was carried out in the Hamrin area near al Alam in Salahuddin province, but that Iraqi forces did not know al-Douri was there beforehand.
Al-Jubouri also spoke to al-Arabiya, where he described the operation as a major victory. He said al-Douri “is considered a mastermind for this terrorist group”, 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.