World

Elusive Saddam Deputy Captured?

September 6, 2004 / 6:34 AM EDT / CBS/AP

Iraqi authorities claimed on Sunday to have captured Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the most wanted member of Saddam Hussein's ousted dictatorship, but there was confusion over the report, as the Iraqi defense minister said word of his arrest was "baseless."

Certainty turned to confusion, CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen reports, noting that DNA tests are underway. One official admitted there was a 50-50 chance they have the right man.

There have been incorrect reports of al-Douri's arrest in the past as U.S. and Iraqi forces hunt for the man who was once one of Saddam's most senior deputies. Sunday's report centered on a raid near al-Douri's hometown of Adwar, north of Baghdad.

Iraq's top information official told The Associated Press that al-Douri was seized while receiving medical treatment at a clinic near Adwar and that DNA tests were underway to confirm his identity. Al-Douri reportedly suffers from leukemia, 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 and 60 percent of the DNA test has finished."

A Defense Ministry spokesman, Saleh Sarhan, also told the U.S.-funded Alhurra television station that al-Douri had been captured.

Later, however, the Iraqi defense minister, Hazem Shaalan, said in an interview with Lebanon's Al Hayat-LBC television that reports that Izzat Ibrahim was captured were "baseless."

"We don't have any information on this subject or on the reports that allegedly came out from the defense 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 rumors 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.

In other recent developments:

A mortar attack Sunday killed two U.S. soldiers and left 16 wounded — one critically — at a base west of the Iraqi capital. Maj. Richard Spiegel of the Army's 13th Corps Support Command said the mortar barrage slammed into Logistical Base Seitz, on Baghdad's western outskirts, around 6 p.m. local time.

A car bomb exploded outside an air base used by U.S. forces near Dijiel, about 25 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. military and police said. One American soldier and two Iraqi civilians were wounded by the blast, said Army Sgt. Robert Powell, a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division. Powell said three suspects were detained near the site of the attack and were taken to the base for interrogation.

An Iraqi militant group appealed Sunday to an influential Sunni Muslim organization to issue a religious edict saying whether it is acceptable under Islam to kidnap foreigners who work for occupation forces. The tape, in a video broadcast on the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite channel, showed a masked man reading a statement that asked the "Association of Muslim Scholars to issue a legal Fatwa (religious edict)," on the question.

The body of an Egyptian citizen was discovered Sunday in northern Iraq, authorities said. Iraqi National Guard Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin said the body was found near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad. The man's hands were bound with a rope and the corpse bore signs that he had been beaten, Amin said. He said identification was found on him that showed he was of Egyptian nationality.

The French government, meanwhile, huddled in crisis talks over the fate of two French reporters held hostage by a separate group in Iraq and said it was still hopeful the pair would be released.

U.S. Maj. Neal O'Brien of the Tikrit-based 1st Infantry Division said he could not confirm the report and U.S.-led forces issued a statement saying he was not in U.S. custody. A senior U.S. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Americans had no information to indicate that al-Douri had been arrested.

Iraqi Minister of State Qassim Dawoud also claimed that al-Douri was arrested and said 150 men defending him also were detained.

Al-Douri, once the vice chairman of the Baath Party's Revolutionary Command Council, is the most prominent member of Saddam's inner circle who had not been captured or killed. U.S. military officials believe he played an organizing role in the 16-month-old insurgency.

He is No. 6 on the U.S. military's list of 55 most-wanted figures from Saddam's regime — the king of clubs in the deck of cards — and U.S. forces have offered a $10 million bounty for his arrest. Forty-four of the people on the list already have been killed or captured.

Saddam was arrested on Dec. 13, hiding in a tiny underground bunker near Adwar.

Dawoud, the minister of state, said the trial of Saddam and other indicted officials from his regime would start "within a few weeks ... before the end of this year and before (Iraqi) elections," which are planned for January.

Saddam so far has had seven preliminary charges filed against him, including gassing thousands of Kurds in 1988, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the suppression of 1991 revolts by Kurds and Shiites, the murders of religious and political leaders and the mass displacement of Kurds in the 1980s. Eleven others have also been charged, including former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz; Ali Hasan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali;" and former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan.

Late last year, al-Douri's wife and daughter were detained. Earlier this year, U.S. forces conducted numerous raids in and around the northern city of Samarra searching for him.

During raids on Jan. 14 in Samarra, American forces arrested four of al-Douri's nephews who they suspected were helping al-Douri move to avoid capture.