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Izzat Ibrahim Al-douriIzzat Ibrahim Al-Douri (born July 1, 1942) was an Iraqi military commander and was vice-president and deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council until the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. His family hails from the region around Tikrit, where his father worked as an ice seller. Al-Douri is one of the three surviving plotters, along with former President Saddam Hussein and former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, who brought the Ba'ath Party to power in a coup in 1968. Following the coup, he continued to retain a prominent position in the Ba'ath regime. This was eased by the fact that Al-Douri came from the same clan area as Saddam and had not disposed of a power base; thus he did not pose a threat to Saddam's ambitions. He played a key role in the chemical shelling of rebellious Kurdish villagers near the city of Halabja in 1988 that resulted in the deaths of 5,000 civilians. In 1999, while in Austria where he came unofficially to treat his leukemia, Al-Douri was implicated in war crimes. The Austrian opposition demanded that he be arrested, pointing to his role in Iraq's regime, but he was allowed by the government to leave the country. Following the Gulf War, he was frequently sent abroad to represent Iraqi interests. His daughter was briefly married to Uday Hussein al-Tikriti, a son of President Saddam Hussein. In 1998, he survived an assassination attempt against him in Karbala. On March 20, 2003, U.S. forces invaded Iraq, leading to the toppling of the regime of President Saddam Hussein on April 9. Following the fall of Baghdad, al-Douri went into hiding and has been charged by U.S. officials to be involved in directing the subsequent Iraqi insurgency against U.S. forces. He is believed to be directing and funding guerrilla attacks as well as brokering an alliance between Ba'athist insurgents and militant Islamists. The U.S. authorities issued a 10 million USD reward for any information leading to his capture. Other reports, however, suggest that he is suffering from leukemia and is directing all his energy to avoiding capture. He is the "King of Clubs" in the "most-wanted Iraqi playing cards." Following the capture of Saddam Hussein, he became the most wanted man in Iraq, though as time went on he became overshadowed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It was announced by Iraq's defense ministry on September 5, 2004, that he had been captured in the town of Tikrit. However, later medical tests showed that the man in custody was a relative of al-Douri, not Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri himself. (Reuters)
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