Iraq official says top Saddam aide killed
An Iraqi official said Friday that the sole member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle to escape justice after the U.S. invasion, former Vice President Izzat al-Douri, has been killed in fighting in central Iraq.
"He's the only huge fish that got away," said CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata, who covered U.S.-led war in Iraq extensively.
Al-Douri became a major antagonist to the U.S.-led forces in Iraq as a key figure in the Sunni insurgency, and had since been linked to al Qaeda in Iraq and subsequently the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
He had a $10 million dollar bounty on his head and featured as the "King of Clubs" in the set of playing cards developed by the U.S. Defense Department to help troops in Iraq identify key members of Hussein's Ba'ath Party.
In July 2014, Deputy Assistant Secretary Brett McGurk told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that al-Douri had taken leadership of the militant wing of the Ba'ath Party, Jaysh al-Tariqa al-Naqshabandi (JRTN).
Governor of Salahuddin Province, Raed Lejbouri, told the Al-Arabiya television network that al-Douri was killed in the midst of wider fighting against Sunni extremist groups in central Iraq. He described the former vice president as a key figure in ISIS and said his death would be a significant blow to the group.
Iraqi officials were waiting on DNA tests to confirm the identity of the dead man believed to be al-Douri, but photos of a body posted online and run by Al-Arabiya bore a strong resemblance.
ISIS has fought viciously this week on at least two fronts in Iraq, making advances on the city of Ramadi, just 70 miles west of Baghdad, which was at the heart of the Sunni insurgency during the war, and battling for control of Iraq's largest oil refinery at Beiji.