Saddam vice president still at large despite capture reports (Roundup)

Apr 25, 2010, 14:33 GMT

Baghdad - Iraqi and US soldiers have found the hiding place of Izzat al-Douri, vice president of Iraq under Saddam Hussein's regime, though al-Douri himself had moved on, police said Sunday.

Al-Douri, one of the most influential figures in the former regime, is one of Iraq's most wanted insurgent leaders, with a 10-million-dollar bounty on his head. Earlier reports that he had been killed or captured have proved to have been false.

A joint Iraqi-US force launched a raid on an al-Qaeda hideout in the hills of Hamrin, some 155 kilometres east of Baquba, a few days ago, police told the German Press Agency dpa. They found evidence the wanted insurgent leader had hidden there, but could not say where he now is.

Saturday's joint operation, supported by the US Air Force, aimed to deliver 'severe blows' to al-Qaeda in the hills of Hamrin, the independent daily al-Sabah al-Jadid reported.

'The operation succeeded in targeting the central command headquarters for al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which was responsible for violent attacks in four Iraqi provinces: Diyala, Kirkuk, Salah al-Din, and Baghdad,' the paper quoted a security source as saying.

Al-Sabah al-Jadid's source described the terrain in Hamrin as 'difficult, and impossible to cover using army vehicles.'

The raid also uncovered hideouts of the Naqshbandi militant movement near the al-Qaeda headquarters, the paper reported. The source said this 'proved' the link between the two militant groups.

Soldiers confiscated 'important' documents and maps in the headquarters indicating the locations of other al-Qaeda hiding places and detailing sources of support from neighboring Arab countries for the movement of suicide bombers and weapons into Iraq.

The paper's source said the documents showed that al-Qaeda's plans to recruit Iraqi suicide bombers to target 'sensitive areas' in neighbouring countries had been successful.

In a second raid in the province, police arrested 11 suspected al- Qaeda militants, including a senior leader known as Abu Ibrahim, police said.

The arrests took place during routine search operations by Iraqi forces in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, about 60 kilometres northeast of Baghdad.

On Friday, at least 63 people were killed and 180 injured in a series of bomb blasts. The attacks have been described as an act of revenge by al-Qaeda, after Iraqi and US forces killed and arrested several of its senior leaders in the war-torn country over the past few weeks.

Last week, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced the death of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, and Sheikh Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Sunni Islamist insurgency in Iraq.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq on Sunday confirmed those deaths, in a message posted to Islamist websites.