Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Iraqi field marshal and politician (b. 1942)
Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri (Arabic: عزة إبراهيم الدوري Izzat Ibrāhīm ad-Dūrī; born 1 July 1942 – 25 October 2020) was an Iraqi politician and Army Field Marshal. He served as Vice Chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council until the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and was regarded as the closest advisor and deputy under President Saddam Hussein. He led the Iraqi insurgent Naqshbandi Army.Al-Douri was the most high-profile Ba'athist official 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 Naqshbandi Army against the then-occupation forces and waged an insurgency against the current regime in Baghdad. Following the execution of 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.Al-Douri was reportedly killed in action—along with his nine bodyguards—on 17 April 2015 in a large-scale military operation by Shiite militias and Iraqi forces near the Al-Alaas oil fields in Hemreen east of Tikrit. The Shiite militant organization Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq has alleged that it killed him and transported his apparent body to Baghdad to confirm its identity. According to the BBC, Shiite militias claimed to have killed him, but the Iraqi Baath party denied his death. A Kurdish news source also reported that Iraq did not have al-Douri's DNA to confirm his death. Al-Douri appeared in videos talking about events that took place after his alleged death. He died on 25 October 2020.