Elusive Iraqi fugitive supposedly arrested

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri is said to be the instigator of the Iraqi resistance

One of the most wanted Iraqi fugitive, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, has been captured in Iraq again. According to the command of the coalition troops, al-Duri is considered the instigator of the guerrilla warfare. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri is the sixth on the list of 55 most wanted former Iraqi leaders.

Official spokesman for the Iraqi government, Ibrahim Janabi, stated that specialists had conducted DNA tests to confirm the prisoner's identity.

Like Saddam Hussein, al-Douri was arrested in Tikrit. Douri was captured in a clinic, where he was receiving medical treatment. He did not hide in a basement, like Saddam did. Eighty advocates of the overthrown Iraqi regime were nabbed together with al-Douri, 70 others were killed in the battle. At first the operation was called one of the most successful operations conducted during the coalition troops' stay in Iraq.

However, Iraqi Defense Minister Hazim al-Shalaan told a reporter of the Lebanese television that the information about al-Douri's arrest was not true to fact. The statement was issued soon after the previous affirmation pertaining to DNA tests. Furthermore, al-Shalaan said, the defense ministry had no information on the matter. It seems that there are several groups in the Iraqi government.

It is noteworthy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri has been “arrested” and even “killed” several times before. Last November, the US command in Iraq offered a $10-million reward for capturing the instigator of the Iraqi resistance. It was then reported that al-Douri had been either nabbed or killed in Iraq. Then it became known it was not true, because he was “arrested” in January of 2004 again. Apparently, the latest news about al-Douri's arrest is not final either.

Saddam's second-in-command man does not look like the leader of the Iraqi guerilla warfare after the Shiite mutiny in Najaf. Proponents of the former regime in the country have been pushed into the background in the current political life in Iraq. At any rate, they do not pose the biggest threat for the incumbent Iraqi government and the occupation forces.