Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri

Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri (عزة ابراهيم الدوري)
Regional Secretary of the Regional Command of the Iraqi Regional Branch
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 January 2007
Preceded by	Saddam Hussein
Chairman of the Supreme Command for Jihad and Liberation
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 October 2007
Deputy Secretary of the Regional Command of the Iraqi Regional Branch
In office September 1991 – 3 January 2007
Preceded by	Taha Yassin Ramadan
Succeeded by	Unknown
Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council
In office 16 July 1979 – 9 April 2003
President	Saddam Hussein
Preceded by	Saddam Hussein
Succeeded by	Post abolished
Member of the Regional Command of the Iraqi Regional Branch
Incumbent
Assumed office October 1966
Personal details
Born	(1942-07-01) 1 July 1942 Tikrit, Kingdom of Iraq
Political party	Iraqi Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
Military service
Allegiance	Baathist Iraq (to 2003)
Branch/service	Iraqi Army
Rank	General
Unit	Political Guidance Directorate
Battles/wars	Iran-Iraq War 2003 Iraq War 1991 Iraq War

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri (Arabic: عزة ابراهيم الدوري ‘Izzat Ibrāhīm ad-Dūrī; born 1 July 1942) is an Iraqi military commander and was vice-president and Deputy Chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council, until the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Al-Douri was the most high profile Ba'athist offical to successfully evade capture after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and was the king of clubs in the infamous most-wanted Iraqi playing cards. Al-Douri continued to lead elements of the Iraqi insurgency such as the Army of the Men of the Naqshbandi Order against occupation forces and wages an insurgency against the current regime in Baghdad to this day; he has been described as "the hidden sheikh of the Men of the Naqshbandi". Following the execution of former President Saddam Hussein on 30 December 2006, Al-Douri was confirmed as the new leader of the banned Iraqi Ba'ath Party on 3 January 2007.

Career

During the Saddam years

Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri (right) with a foreign guest, 1988.

At the time of the invasion, Al-Douri, along with President Saddam Hussein and Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, was among the three surviving plotters who had brought the Ba'ath Party to power in a coup in 1968. Saddam's eldest son Uday Hussein was once married to Al-Douri's daughter, but he later divorced her. On 22 November 1998 Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri escaped an assassination attempt when visiting Karbala.

Iraqi and Syrian Ba'athist leaders during the funeral of Michel Aflaq, 1989.

Al-Douri is also believed to be suffering from leukemia and is said to undergo blood transfusions every six months. In 1999, he visited Vienna, Austria for treatment. The Austrian opposition demanded that he be arrested for war crimes, but the government allowed him to leave the country.

After the 2003 invasion

On 20 March 2003, U.S.-led coalition forces invaded Iraq, leading to the toppling of the regime of President Saddam Hussein on 9 April 2003. Following the fall of Baghdad, Al-Douri went into hiding. U.S. officials claimed that he was involved in the subsequent Iraqi insurgency against U.S. forces, directing and funding attacks, as well as brokering an alliance between Ba'athist insurgents and militant Islamists. In a June 2008 interview, Al-Douri detailed his strategy, indicating that "any negotiations with the invaders without it represents a desertion and treason, and is refused by all national, Pan-Arab and Islamic factions of the resistance."

1. An official pronounced recognition of the armed and unarmed national resistance, including all its factions and (political) parties, as the sole legitimate representative of the people of Iraq.
2. An official declaration of unconditional withdrawal from Iraq by the U.S. leadership.
3. Declaring null and void all the political and legislative institutions, as well as all the laws and legislations issued by them, since the occupation, with the de-Ba'athfication law in the forefront, and compensating all who were adversely affected by them.
4. A stop to raids, prosecutions, arrests, killings and displacement.
5. Release of all prisoners of war (POWs), prisoners and detainees without exception and compensating all for their physical and psychological damage.
6. Reinstating the army and the national security forces in service in accordance with their pre-occupation laws and regulations, and compensating all who were adversely affected by dissolving them.
7. A pledge to compensate Iraq for all the material and moral losses it incurred because of the occupation.

Al-Douri is reportedly the head of the Iraqi rebel group Army of the Men of the Naqshbandi Order as well as the Supreme Command for Jihad and Liberation based on his longstanding positions of leadership in the Naqshbandi sect in Iraq. In 2009 General David Petraeus, who was at the time heading the United States Central Command, told reporters from Al Arabiya that al-Douri was residing in Syria.

Resurfacing and video evidence

On November 10, 2011, a man claiming to be Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri released an audio tape condemning a recent arrest campaign targeting suspected Ba'ath Party members.

The first visual evidence of his survival surfaced on April 7, 2012 when a video posted online showed him giving a speech. In the shots he is seen wearing an olive military uniform and glasses, denouncing the Shiite-led government in Baghdad and interference in Iraqi politics by regional Shia powerhouse Iran. "Everyone can hear the sounds of danger echoing daily and threatening this country," Al-Douri says during the hour-long broadcast. Prime Minister Maliki's personal adviser Ali Al-Moussawi said the tape had a propaganda function, but that he doubted al-Douri was still in Iraq as he required extensive medical care for a number of illnesses.

One Iraqi MP stated that he believes Al-Douri is residing in Qatar.

On January 5, 2013, a 53-minute video was released on YouTube in which Al-Douri encouraged recent Sunni protests in Nineveh and Anbar provinces against Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, saying that "the people of Iraq and all its nationalist and Islamic forces support you until the realization of your just demands for the fall of the Safavid-Persian alliance". The message, which showed the 70 year-old sitting behind a desk with a small Saddam era flag on it, was partially broadcast on the Al Arabiya news channel. In the video, released just before the Iraqi Army Day on January 6, Douri claimed to be somewhere in Iraq's Babil Province. Hours after the tape was released, Iraqi military intelligence arrested Abdul Rahman Mohammed Ibrahim, the nephew of Al-Douri, in Saladin Province.

In April 2013 the Iraqi Government claimed to be closing in on Al-Douri, who they claimed was moving between Tikrit and the towns of Hawija and Dour, which is alleged to be an area of strong support for Al-Douri, and also where he is also claimed to own a villa.

2014 and the fall of Mosul

Al-Douri and has been pointed out as one of the main commanders responsible for successful take over of North Iraq and the city of Mosul in June 2014 by rebel groups The Naqshbandi Army along with other groups lead by former Ba'ath officers are reported to have assumed an increasingly large role in the governance and administration of occupied cities. Militants were reported to have appointed fellow Ba'ath generals Azhar al-Obeidi and Ahmed Abdul Rashid as the governors of Mosul and Tikrit.