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| Iraq | ||
| al-Douri may be in the jug or taking a dirt nap | ||
| 2003-12-02 | ||
U.S. troops may have killed or arrested Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam Hussein’s top former deputy who is suspected of leading the anti-U.S. insurgency, an Iraqi official said Tuesday. Officials of the U.S.-led coalition in Baghdad said they had no information on the report.
U.S. officials last week offered a $10 million reward for information leading to al-Douri’s capture. Aside from Saddam, Al-Douri is the most senior official of the former regime who is still at large. Last week, U.S. troops arrested a wife and a daughter in an apparent attempt to pressure him into surrendering. In Baghdad, workers on Tuesday began dismantling four giant bronze busts of Saddam Hussein that have long been a Baghdad landmark. The workers used a construction crane to take down the busts in the Republican Palace, in yet another move aimed at eradicating the former leader’s influence. The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority announced last month that it would dismantle the 13-feet-high busts. It was not clear how long the operation would last. Meanwhile, a witness said insurgents ambushed American soldiers just south of Samarra, a city where troops and insurgents fought a pitched battle on Sunday. U.S. commanders claimed that up to 54 guerrillas were killed in the clash Sunday , but this has been disputed by residents and hospital officials who say less than 10 people - most of them
During the past month, U.S. troops have pounded suspected guerrilla targets under a new "get-tough" campaign against the insurgency. Despite the crackdown, November has proven to be the deadliest for coalition troops since the war began. The increasing death toll has raised concerns in some nations taking part in the U.S.-led coalition. On Tuesday, Thailand’s Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said government leaders will discuss the possibility of withdrawing Thailand’s contingent from Iraq if the security situation continues to deteriorate. Thailand dispatched 422 soldiers in September in a non-combat capacity to help rebuild roads, buildings and other infrastructure destroyed during the war, and to provide medical services. The fighting in Samarra on Sunday represented a greater level of coordination in the Iraqi insurgency, although U.S. forces said they had anticipated the attacks and blunted them with superior firepower. U.S. Capt. Andy Deponai, whose tank was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade during the firefight, said on Monday that he was surprised by the scale of the attack on the convoys, which were carrying bundles of new Iraqi currency, and that 30 to 40 assailants lay in wait - armed with rocket-propelled grenades - near each of the two banks where the money was being delivered. "Up to now you’ve seen a progression - initially it was hit-and-run, single RPG shots on patrols. Then they started doing volley fire, multiple RPG ambushes, and then from there, this is the first well-coordinated one," he said. "It’s hard to tell on the basis of one attack exactly what tactics may or may not be changing," Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Brussels, Belgium. | ||
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #21 Was Burns the source for the 1,100 figure? I thought that number appeared origninally on a Canadian website, without sourcing (can't remember which site, or how I linked to it). Notwithstanding this, interesting and savvy commentary on the matter, liberalhawk. Your take on DEBKA -- and Burns -- is the same as mine. |
| Posted by: IceCold 2003-12-2 5:06:35 PM |
| #20 another possibility is that Burns and Debka have a common source. Debka, IIUC, tends to be the mouthpieces for certain elements in Israeli Intel, accounting for both its strong agenda, and its occasional bona fide nugget. Is it possible Burns has his own sources in Israeli Intel? Or that in this case Israeli Intel got its info from Centcom, which is also feeding it to Burns? Leaking it to avoid getting into the official body count game? And to put their preferred spin on it? |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-12-2 2:41:04 PM |
| #19 Cant believe Burns would reprint Debka. The one other relatively hawkish reporter on Iraq at the Times, Judith Miller, got into deep doo doo relying on reports from the INC for claims on WMD that turned out to be wrong. Burns, who had "a very good war" would be more cautious, I think. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-12-2 2:37:40 PM |
| #18 I first read about the 1100 dead guerrillas in DEBKA, so, despite my earlier post professing to be an optimist, I am pessimistic about this claim. I wonder if John Burns, who's a terrific and honest reporter (NYT press badge notwithstanding), reads DEBKA or if there are other sources reporting this. |
| Posted by: Tibor 2003-12-2 2:29:10 PM |
| #17 this from John Burns of the New York Times (yes, the Times) via Andrew Sullivan. "Here is what you have yet to hear reported in the mainstream media. In the few weeks since Coalition forces began to launch major counter-insurgency attacks, beginning with Operation Iron Hammer, over 1100 Iraqi Guerrillas have been captured or killed. This represents one-fifth of the entire strength of the Ba’athist and Islamist forces in the country. These figures, presented to President Bush in a secret briefing during his Thanksgiving trip to Baghdad, do not include the forty-six terrorists killed in a battle on November 30th. In other words, the US armed forces are killing and capturing fifteen of the enemy for each loss of their own: and this figure is distorted by the high number of US personnel killed in aircraft shoot-downs in November, a figure which is not likely to be repeated. In individual combat, the results look more and more like those of the last Sunday in November: forty-six of the enemy killed and eight captured with no losses among our forces. At the present rate, the entire force possessed by the enemy will be destroyed, and the country pacified, in a matter of months." Like Sully, I think this sounds a tad optimistic. Wonder about Burns sources on the 1100. The 5000 is from Centcom. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-12-2 2:12:18 PM |
| #16 at least one item ive seen said coalition forces are also looking or al-Duris son ahmed (?), who commands 500 insurgents organized in 2 brigades, reporting to his father. If Ahmed al -Duri has been captured, that could account for the confusion. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-12-2 1:08:25 PM |
| #15 Isn't this "The Ice Man"? "Given that Hussein is reported definitely to have changed his appearance, it isn't beyond belief that his 2nd has done so as well ....." This guy had better - believe it or not he has red hair and mustache. I'd say some L'Oreal is probably in play here. I hope we do get a shot at him - unspoiled by Iraqi police playing both sides, as has been reported. Unfortunately, we have little clean material to work with - so it's a crap shoot. |
| Posted by: .com 2003-12-2 12:08:34 PM |
| #14 Along the same lines as my previous post, the Fox News report quotes a 4th ID spokesman as denying the report that al-Douri was captured or killed in a raid in Northern Iraq overnight. Why quote the 4th ID, which is based in the Sunni Triangle, rather than the 173rd or 101st? I may be grasping at straws, but I am an optimist. I always see the body bag as half full rather than half empty. |
| Posted by: Tibor 2003-12-2 11:54:38 AM |
| #13 But Major Doug Vincent of the 173rd Airborne Brigade told reporters with the troops Mr Douri was "definitely not captured in today's mission". This could mean that he was captured yesterday. |
| Posted by: Tibor 2003-12-2 11:41:40 AM |
| #12 I would wait for more credible news source than the BBC |
| Posted by: Dan 2003-12-2 11:36:52 AM |
| #11 One reason to have the wife and daughter briefly: DNA from both would enable them to identify al Douri -- or to rule out an imposter. Given that Hussein is reported definitely to have changed his appearance, it isn't beyond belief that his 2nd has done so as well ..... |
| Posted by: rkb 2003-12-2 11:33:43 AM |
| #10 Crud. Why did we miss him though? Iraqi Police escort him outside security lines and let him loose? |
| Posted by: Charles 2003-12-2 11:32:28 AM |
| #9 From BBC: US forces have denied reports that they have captured a top Saddam Hussein deputy during a raid in northern Iraq. A member of Iraq's Governing Council said earlier Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri had been caught in the raid near Kirkuk. But Major Doug Vincent of the 173rd Airborne Brigade told reporters with the troops Mr Douri was "definitely not captured in today's mission". Dammit |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-12-2 11:21:27 AM |
| #8 Dammit, Dammit, Dammit. Fox News reporting that we didn't get him. Source is US military command on the scene. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-12-2 11:00:31 AM |
| #7 "Izzat him?" "Don't know. Let's take him down to the morgue and find out." |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-12-2 10:56:33 AM |
| #6 Same GC story from BBC at the top of the hour... |
| Posted by: .com 2003-12-2 10:49:49 AM |
| #5 Another tease from Fox: Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a member of the U.S.-picked Iraqi Governing Council, told the Arabic television station Al-Jazeera that there was "a very big military operation" in Kirkuk and that those killed or captured included a "big fish." "We are trying to verify the identity of this important figure," al-Rubaie said. "Preliminary examination has been very positive." A senior Kurdish official in Kirkuk said, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he heard al-Douri had been "killed or captured," citing sources in his political party. The official said family members of al-Douri bodyguards were seen crying and saying that al-Douri had been captured. The official also said the family members were in Hawija, 30 miles west of Kirkuk, and that American soldiers had arrested dozens of people there in an overnight raid. Comon, CENTCOM, don't leave us hanging. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-12-2 10:41:46 AM |
| #4 Excellent. If he's captured the Oxy-Contin's gonna do the trick. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-12-2 9:58:21 AM |
| #3 Oh yeah... warming up... captured is very very good... C'mon Steve, drop the other shoe, man! |
| Posted by: .com 2003-12-2 9:55:31 AM |
| #2 Saddam Hussein’s deputy, Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri, has been captured in a joint Iraqi-U.S. manhunt operation, a member of the U.S.-installed Iraqi Governing Council confirmed Tuesday, December 2. Mahmoud Othman told the BBC that the council has been officially notified of Douri’s arrest during a major overnight raid on the northern city of Kirkuk. There was no official comment from the U.S. army on the capture of Douri, the sixth on the U.S. list of the most wanted 55 Iraqi officials. Almost there, I'd really like a US spokesman. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-12-2 9:39:28 AM |
| #1 From Rooters: U.S. forces may have killed or captured Izzat Ibrahim, the most wanted man in Iraq after Saddam Hussein and believed to be a mastermind of the guerrilla resistance, Governing Council sources say. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military on the reports about Saddam's right-hand man. "There was a major action against a highly suspicious objective last night in Kirkuk and it is very possible that Izzat Ibrahim has been captured or killed," Governing Council member Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told Reuters. He said he had been in contact with U.S. forces. Another high-level source in the U.S.-appointed Council said he had been informed that Ibrahim had been caught in the raid. Local government officials in Kirkuk, 250 km (150 miles) north of Baghdad, said the town was abuzz with talk that Ibrahim had been captured. Ibrahim's detention would be a major coup for the U.S.-led coalition. A top pre-war lieutenant of Saddam's, he is sixth on the U.S. list of the 55 top Iraqi fugitives, but all those in the top five except for Saddam have been killed or captured. In a deck of cards issued to U.S. troops to help them identify fugitives, Ibrahim is the King of Clubs. Let's not get our hopes up, but it sounds good. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-12-2 8:49:51 AM |