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Iraqi forces arrest Douri’s top aide | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Iraqis gather at the site of a car bom in Al-Nasr neighbourhood in the northern Iraqi town of Kirkuk on September 5, 2013, which killed two people and wounded more than 15. (AFP PHOTO/MARWAN IBRAHIM)


Iraqis gather at the site of a car bom in Al-Nasr neighbourhood in the northern Iraqi town of Kirkuk on September 5, 2013, which killed two people and wounded more than 15. (AFP PHOTO/MARWAN IBRAHIM)

Iraqis gather at the site of a car bom in Al-Nasr neighbourhood in the northern Iraqi town of Kirkuk on September 5, 2013, which killed two people and wounded more than 15. (AFP PHOTO/MARWAN IBRAHIM)

Baghdad, Asharq Al-Awsat—One of the top aides of Iraq’s Saddam-era vice-president Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri was arrested on Wednesday, Iraqi authorities’ announced.

Samir Shwaili, media spokesman of the head of Iraq’s anti-terrorism agency, said that Iraqi forces arrested Hussein Khazraji after they pursued him in the town of Al-Dour, 85 miles north of Baghdad.

Izzat Al-Douri, who served as Iraq’s vice-president and was one of Saddam Hussein’s right-hand men, has been at large since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. In November 2005, the US army offered a USD 10 million reward for information leading to his arrest.

In January 2013, a video posted online showed Douri expressing support for Sunni protestors in Iraq against Shi’ite Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki.

Violence continued to escalate in Iraq on Wednesday as at least 33 were killed and more than 20 were injured in separate attacks across the country.

Militants stormed two neighboring houses in the town of Latifiya, 25 miles south of Baghdad, killing at least 18 members of a Shi’ite family.

Latifiya, also known as the “triangle of death,” is reportedly one of Al-Qaeda’s strongholds in Iraq.

In separate news, a spokesman for Iraq’s Ministry of Interior announced that “five military personnel including a sergeant were killed and seven were injured in three bomb attacks that targeted an army patrol.”

The attack took place as Iraqi military personnel patrolled Al-Tarmia, 27 miles north of Baghdad, on Wednesday.