Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former top adviser to Saddam Hussein and the highest-ranking member of the Iraqi leader’s regime to evade capture, has been killed in an Iraqi security operation, Iraqi state-run television reported Friday.
Al-Douri, who the U.S. military said helped finance a Sunni insurgency in Iraq after Hussein’s regime fell in a 2003 U.S.-led invasion, served as a military commander and effectively was Hussein’s deputy.
He also was the “king of clubs” in a deck of playing cards used by American troops to identify the most-wanted regime officials.
Friday’s state TV report said al-Douri played a leadership role in various terrorist organizations that opposed the Iraqi government.
Al-Douri was vice chairman of the country’s revolutionary command council in Hussein’s Sunni-dominated regime.
The U.S. military had said that after Hussein’s regime fell, al-Douri helped finance a Sunni insurgency with money he transferred to Syria before the government collapsed.
