Izzat Ibrahim ad-Duri
Izzat Ibrahim ad-Duri ( Arabic عزة إبراهيم الدوري, DMG ʿIzzat Ibrāhīm ad-Dūrī ; * July 1, 1942 in ad-Daur , Iraq ) was an Iraqi general , deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and thus one of the most important and closest leaders of the former Ba'ath regime until the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 . Since then, as the last representative of the overthrown regime, he has continued the struggle and made a continuous claim to legitimacy as an underground government. From January 2, 2007 he was the new head of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party.
Life
The family comes from the region around Tikrit , where his father worked as an ice cream seller. At the time of the US invasion of Iraq he was with the then president Saddam Hussein and Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan that one of three survivors who in 1968 the Baath party to government coup . Member of the command council since 1969, ad-Duri represented the Sunni conservative wing of the party.
After the coup he managed to keep an important position in the Ba'ath Party. The reason for this was on the one hand his origin from the same clan as Saddam Hussein, but also that he did not have his own power base in the party and therefore did not pose a threat to Saddam Hussein. From 1970 to 1974 he was Minister of Agriculture , 1974–1979 Minister of the Interior and, since 1979, Vice President or Deputy Chairman of the Command Council (not Vice President of Iraq). He was Saddam Hussein's vice- president both as head of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party and as commander-in-chief of all armed forces , and thus roughly on a par with the vice-presidents and (vice) premiers.
Ad Duri is believed to have played a key role in the poison gas attack on Halabja on March 16, 1988, which resulted in the deaths of 5,000 civilians, but there is no evidence. In 1999, while he was in Austria for leukemia treatment, he was charged with war crimes . The Austrian opposition at the time demanded that he be arrested immediately, but the government allowed him to leave the country.
After the First Gulf War , he was frequently posted abroad to represent Iraqi interests. His daughter was briefly married to Saddam Hussein's son, Uday. Ad-Duri survived an assassination attempt in Karbala in 1998 .
Resistance in the underground
On the eve of the US invasion of Iraq, he was appointed commander of the northern military district and as such he continued the fight in the underground even after the invasion of the US troops. However, his wife and daughter were arrested, as were gradually all the other members of the former leadership.
The US accused him of organizing attacks on its troops and also forging an alliance between former members of the Ba'ath Party and militant Muslims . He was then wanted with a $ 10 million bounty . But there have also been reports that he had leukemia and was primarily focused on avoiding arrest.
After Saddam Hussein's arrest, he briefly became the most wanted person in Iraq, but was then replaced by the terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi . According to contradicting statements, he was said to have been active in and around Mosul regardless of the presence of US and Kurdish troops . He is said to have even remarried and visited his new wife in the hospital after having a child together. From the underground he called against the adoption of the constitution and is said to have held a Baath party conference in the middle of Ramadi in western Iraq in the spring of 2005 .
According to US military figures, ad-Duri is said to have had significant funds and a bodyguard of up to 70 men around him all the time.
On January 2, 2007, Al Jazeera reported that ad-Duri had been appointed as the new leader of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party.
Death reports in 2004 and 2005
The arrest, circulated on September 5, 2004, turned out to be a hoax. A close relative had been arrested in his place.
On November 11, 2005, the Arab news channel al-Arabiya reported that ad-Duri had died. Sources from the Ba'ath Party were quoted who allegedly identified him as the "Great Leader of the Resistance". However, it was unclear whether this really meant ad-duri or whether he had really died or whether the report was just a newspaper duck . A diversionary maneuver was also thought to be possible in order to deceive the Allied pursuers.
Meanwhile, there are still doubts among US troops that the bounty will continue to be maintained. From Syria itself, to which the Iraqi regional command of the Ba'ath Party is said to have withdrawn and where ad-Duri is also said to have died, there was no official statement, neither confirmations nor denials.
Continued resistance
After the Iraqi Baath Party website had 2007 announced the election ad Duris as the new Secretary General and the US news agency AP choosing ad Duris had also mentioned for the leader of a resistance coalition, reported on 23 April 2008, the news channel al-Arabiya on a capture by ad Duri in the northern Iraqi province of Salaheddin.
The Russian news agency "Novosti" confirmed on July 17, 2008 that ad-Duri led the underground Ba'ath party and reported on new audio recordings that announced the imminent victory over the US occupiers and were being sold in Baghdad CD shops.
In April 2012, a video of ad-Duri surfaced in which he, heavily drawn, declares war on the West and Iran and describes the Iraqi government as the stooge of the Iranian "Mongols". He condemns the military intervention in Libya , his position on the civil war in Syria varies depending on the source: He is supposed to either welcome or condemn the uprising by the Sunnis. The approximately one-hour YouTube video was released for the 65th anniversary of the Ba'ath Party , but the authenticity has not yet been proven. In January 2013, another video was distributed with a speech ad Duri in which he supported the Sunni rebels and thus indirectly also al-Qaeda .
Role in the Iraqi uprising in 2014
After Mosul fell to the terrorist organization Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in June 2014 , Kurdish politicians claimed that Sunni ex-Baathists around ad-Duri were behind the advance of ISIS terrorists in Sunni-populated areas. A former high-ranking officer under Saddam Hussein made a similar statement to the New York Times , claiming that ad-Duri had planned the campaign for two years and that Hussein's daughter Raghad was delighted in the Arab newspaper al-Kuds from her exile in Jordan: “This Victories are thanks to my father's fighters and Uncle Issat al-Duri ”. The journalist Jürgen Todenhöfer believes that fighters of the Duri-led and secularly oriented alliance of the “ National, Pan-Arab and Islamic Resistance ” (FNPI) were the real masterminds of the uprising against the Maliki government that began in May 2014, during which the ISIS offensives were also launched took place. Only a small part of the insurgents belong to the "Islamic State". In June 2014, Todenhöfer assumed there were around 1,000 ISIS supporters, facing around 20,000 fighters from the FNPI. In addition to Sunnis and Baathists, supporters of this resistance movement are also parts of the population who are economically unsatisfied and are suffering from the war in the country. In July 2014, the journalist Peter Scholl-Latour expressed doubts about similarities between ad-Duri's originally secular Ba'ath ideology and extremely radical Islam and suspected ad-Duri or Ba'athist elements rather behind the Free Syrian Army , which in Syria against both the Syrian -Alavite Ba'ath Regime as well as fighting against ISIS and other Islamic fundamentalists. In mid-July 2014, however, an earlier sound recording by ad-Duri was reported in which he allegedly expressed his support for ISIS. However, after the fall of Mosul, former Baathists did not appear in public, nor were Baathist or FNPI flags hoisted in the city. Instead, the Ba'ath Party declared war on ISIS in the summer of 2014.
On April 17, 2015, various reports based on statements by the governor of Salah ad-Din were distributed, according to which ad-Duri had been killed by the Iraqi army or a Shiite militia in fighting near Tikrit. However, the DNA evidence announced by the authorities has not yet been produced, while new audio messages ad-duris are said to have surfaced in the Baathist underground. In April 2018, a new video was released with a message of greeting from al-Duri on the 71st year of the Baath Party's foundation.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Nationalist Iraqi insurgent groups form new coalition ready to talk to US
- ↑ Al-Duri captured in Iraq. In: n-tv.de. Accessed in 2008 .
- ↑ Saddam's vice promises an early victory over US occupiers
- ^ ORF of April 8, 2012: Video of Saddam Hussein Vice Al Duri surfaced
- ↑ Rainer Hermann: "Uprising in Iraq: The Revenge of the King of the Cross" , FAZ , June 14, 2014.
- ↑ a b Report by France 24 on al-Douri, 5: 50-6: 15, 7: 20-7: 40
- ↑ sueddeutsche.de of June 16, 2014: The Spirit of Saddam
- ↑ Sebastian Kempkens and Raniah Salloum: Saddam's ex- general at Isis - Uncle al-Duri strikes back , Spiegel Online, June 16, 2014. Accessed October 31, 2018.
- ↑ “Only apparently the biggest role” , Michael Hesse, interview with Jürgen Todenhöfer, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, June 15, 2014
- ↑ RIA Novosti of July 5, 2014: Scholl-Latour: The partition of Iraq is practically complete
- ↑ Al-Arabiya of April 17, 2015: Top Saddam aide Izzat al-Douri reportedly killed
- ↑ Iraqi Army kills Saddam's General , n-tv.de, April 17, 2015
- ^ Former Saddam Hussein deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri reported killed in Iraq after 12-year hunt , Sydney Morning Herald, April 17, 2015
- ^ The Guardian online from May 16, 2015: Iraqi audio recording shows Saddam Hussein's deputy may still be alive
- ↑ Iraq Saddam's 'king of clubs' reappears on Baath anniversary , Rudaw , April 8, 2018.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Duri, Izzat Ibrahim ad- |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Iraqi general and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 1, 1942 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | ad major Shir at Samarra |