Doubt surrounds earlier reports claiming that US and Iraqi forces had captured Saddam Hussein's deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, after a battle left 70 of his supporters dead. Al-Duri was reportedly apprehended while he was receiving medical treatment in Tikrit, a stronghold of Baath party supporters. He is suffering from leukaemia and his health had deteriorated, Iraqi officials said. Iraqi authorities said there was a 75-90% chance that the captured man was al-Duri - one of the most wanted men in Iraq.
Occupation authorities had accused him of coordinating attacks against US forces in the country. A group of 150 armed men fought against US and Iraqi troops before his capture. Observers said al-Duri's capture will not stop attacks on US forces in Iraq. Dr Nabil Mohammed Salim from the centre of international studies in Baghdad University doubted the man who was Saddam's number two in Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council was linked to the ongoing resistance against occupation forces. London-based political activist Abd al-Amir Alwan told Aljazeera his arrest would be used for political gain by the Iraqi government. "The US administration and the Iraqi government want to enlarge this in order to divert the attention from the issue of the legitimacy of the Iraqi government and the resistance," he said. "Accusations that Saddam Hussein, Izzat al-Duri or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were behind the resistance were false as there is a vast resistance in the north and the south of Iraq and it is not related to Izzat al-Duri or any other person. There are many factions refusing the occupation," he said. "The man is part of the former regime and he is ill and I think that he was just a follower to Saddam. What made him important was his close relationship with Saddam. Giving the incident such significance is camouflage and misleading. It is the people's resistance and I do not think the arrest will affect the resistance."
"The arrest of Izzat al-Duri will definitely make Iraqi people happy and sadden former Baath cells to which he belonged. The arrest was not a surprise", Samir Ubayd, a Paris-based Iraqi journalist told Aljaazeera. "The arrest does not mean anything particularly after the toppling of the former regime in which Izzat was just a tool in the hand of Saddam. So I think there was not a vast resistance he was leading. The resistance has been popular and now it has got rid of accusations of working with al-Duri". |