(dpa) - Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, former
Iraqi vice-president under Saddam Hussein, has been arrested in the northern province of Salaheddin, the Dubai-based al-Arabiya broadcaster said Wednesday.
However, officers of the Iraqi Army and also police officials in Salaheddin
denied the report. "There were no military operations at all either
in Tikrit or the Hamrein Mountains," provincial governor Hamad Hammud
said.
Al-Aarabiya had reported that al-Douri - "King of
Clubs" in the "most-wanted Iraqi playing cards" gallery
presented by US forces after the 2003 invasion of Iraq - had been taken to Baghdad for tests to verify his identity.
Al-Douri became most-wanted man in Iraq after Saddam's capture in late 2003,
and is believed to have played a decisive part in financing attacks by the
Iraqi insurgency.
He was several times reported to have narrowly evaded capture by US forces, and
there had also been several Arab media reports during the two years following
Saddam's capture that he had been detained.
Al-Douri was the sole member of the former leadership headed by Saddam who had
remained at large, and was reported to have organised an alliance between
Baathist insurgents and militant Islamists.