Exclusive: Dispute over former Iraqi VP Izzat Ibrahim’s reported capture

DEBKA-Net-Weekly report Syrian police pushed Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, 66, who led the Iraqi Sunni Baath underground campaign against the US Army after Saddam Hussein’s overthrow in 2003, across the border Tuesday, April 23. In Baghdad, the man in custody is undergoing DNA testing to find out if he really is the King of Clubs on America’s most wanted deck of cards list – or a fake.
Damascus clearly moved to blunt the impact of disclosures in the US Congress on April 24 about its covert nuclear site which Israeli raiders destroyed last September.
More about this event and its ramifications in the coming DEBKA-Net-Weekly out on Friday.
Iraqi security sources reported Wednesday that the man was captured in Hamrin between the northeren provinces of Salahuddin and Kirkuk, moved to Baghdad and handed over to US forces. The US military in Baghdad stated: “At this point, we can say that he is not in coalition custody and we have no reports that he was captured by Iraqi security forces either.”
debkafile‘s counter-terror sources report: For years, al-Douri enjoyed free rein in Syria to run training camps for the Sunni insurgency’s suicide bombers. He also controlled the fat bank accounts of Saddam’s relatives and the Iraq Baath. Al-Douri helped himself to billions of dollars to fund the Iraq insurgency against the US army and gave the Syrian regime its rake-off by transfers through Damascus banks.