DNA tests to confirm capture of ‘king of clubs’

Iraqi authorities were conducting DNA tests to confirm the identity of Saddam Hussein’s former second-in-command, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, captured in northern Iraq today.

American military officials said they could not confirm the capture of red-haired al-Douri, number six on the wanted list – the king of clubs in the deck of cards – and US forces have offered a 10 million dollar bounty for his arrest.

Once the vice chairman of the Baath Party’s Revolutionary Command Council, al-Douri is the most prominent member of Saddam’s inner circle to remain on the run.

Iraq’s top information official said the key confidante of Saddam had been seized while receiving medical treatment near his home town. Al-Douri reportedly suffers from leukaemia, and needs blood transfusions.

“We are sure he is Izzat Ibrahim,” information official Ibrahim Janabi said. “He was arrested in a clinic in Makhoul near Tikrit and Adwar (his home town) and 60% of the DNA test has finished.”

Iraqi Minister of State Qassim Dawoud confirmed al-Douri’s arrest during a press conference in Kuwait and said some 150 others who were defending him were also detained in northern Iraq.

However, US Major Neal O’Brien of the Tikrit-based 1st Infantry Division said he could not confirm the report and US-led forces issued a statement saying he was not in their custody.

A senior US diplomat said they had nothing to indicate that al-Douri had been arrested.

Later defence minister, Hazem Shaalan, said in an interview with Lebanon’s Al Hayat-LBC television that reports that al-Douri was captured were “baseless”.

“We don’t have any information on this subject or on the reports that allegedly came out from the defence ministry,” he said.

“They are baseless. There are search operations by the national guards troops and multinational troops going on during which some terrorist positions were shelled. There were rumours that Izzat al-Douri or someone who resembles him were in that position but we don’t have any information on Izzat specifically,” he said.

Iraqi officials have mistakenly reported al-Douri’s arrest several times before.