1649) Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri (1942 – 2020). Iraqi politician, army officer and field marshal. He served as Vice Chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council until the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States and was regarded as the closest advisor and deputy under President Saddam Hussein. He led the Iraqi resistance group Naqshbandi Army.
Al-Douri was the most high-profile Ba'athist official to successfully evade capture after the invasion of Iraq, and was the "king of clubs" in the infamous U.S. deck of most-wanted Iraqi playing cards. Al-Douri continued to lead elements of the Iraqi resistance such as the Naqshbandi Army against the then-occupation forces and waged an insurgency against the current regime in Baghdad. Following the execution of Saddam Hussein on 30 December 2006, al-Douri was confirmed as the new leader of the banned Iraqi Ba'ath Party on 3 January 2007.
In April 2015, the Shiite militant organization Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq claimed they had killed al-Douri and his nine bodyguards during a military operation near the Al-Alaas oil fields in Hemreen east of Tikrit. The group further alleged that his body had been transported to Baghdad to confirm its identity on 17 April 2015. Though the story was carried by the BBC, they also noted that the Iraqi Ba'ath party denied that al-Douri had died, while a Kurdish news source reported that Iraq did not have al-Douri's DNA to confirm his death. Al-Douri subsequently appeared in videos talking about events that took place after his supposed death. On 26 October 2020, news of his death was again carried by both local and international media, this time based on announcements by the Iraqi Ba-ath party and Raghad Hussein, the daughter of Saddam Hussein.

 

- "Pictures had emerged of the body of a red-haired man bearing some resemblance to Saddam's feared deputy..." https://www.straitstimes.com/world/middle-east/baath-party-tv-releases-recording-of-saddam-deputy-thought-to-be-dead

 

- "A photo supposedly taken of the dead man by soldiers involved in the operation and distributed on Twitter closely resembled al Douri, including notable red hair and a red beard." https://archive.triblive.com/news/world/report-iraqi-security-forces-kill-saddam-aide-al-douri-but-dna-will-confirm/