Baghdad (November 13, 2005) – General Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, former vice-president of Iraq under Saddam Hussein and deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council until the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, was reportedly dead on Friday, November 11, at 2:30 AM. An email sent by the Arab Socialist Bath Party announcing his death. If General A-Duri’s demise could be confirmed by independent sources, it would be a major, maybe fatal blow to the Iraqi insurgency. While most Western observers consider the Jordanian-born Al-Zarqawi the top terrorist in the Iraqi theater, General Al-Duri is in reality the most critical figure of the Iraqi insurgency for many obvious reasons. Al-Zarqawi is a foreign-born terrorist, he has no vested interest in gaining the control of Iraq's territorial or institutional sovereignty. His main goal is to kill “infidels,” which include not only Americans but also many innocent Iraqis. The Iraqi people would never accept a foreigner as leader. General Al-Duri, on the other hand, is the “Iraqi of the Iraqis,” at least for the vast majority of Saddam Hussein supporters, who compose the mass of the insurgency. He was Saddam Hussein’s right hand man and closest confident. Born in the same Tikrit region, General Al-Duri knew and worked with Saddam Hussein since the early formative days of the Bath Party in the sixties. He later held important positions in the Bath regime and Revolutionary Command Council. He was also one of Saddam Hussein’s top military commanders and assumed command positions in the Kuwait occupation and the subsequent Gulf war operations. General Al-Duri thus incarnated "both the political and the military wings" of the Iraqi insurgency, and without a doubt, could be considered as the supreme “Iraqi Führer” at large. His death, if confirmed, would be a big step on the long road toward the end of the insurgency war.
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Al-Duri: The Real Number One
Baghdad (November 13, 2005) – General Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, former vice-president of Iraq under Saddam Hussein and deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council until the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, was reportedly dead on Friday, November 11, at 2:30 AM. An email sent by the Arab Socialist Bath Party announcing his death. If General A-Duri’s demise could be confirmed by independent sources, it would be a major, maybe fatal blow to the Iraqi insurgency. While most Western observers consider the Jordanian-born Al-Zarqawi the top terrorist in the Iraqi theater, General Al-Duri is in reality the most critical figure of the Iraqi insurgency for many obvious reasons. Al-Zarqawi is a foreign-born terrorist, he has no vested interest in gaining the control of Iraq's territorial or institutional sovereignty. His main goal is to kill “infidels,” which include not only Americans but also many innocent Iraqis. The Iraqi people would never accept a foreigner as leader. General Al-Duri, on the other hand, is the “Iraqi of the Iraqis,” at least for the vast majority of Saddam Hussein supporters, who compose the mass of the insurgency. He was Saddam Hussein’s right hand man and closest confident. Born in the same Tikrit region, General Al-Duri knew and worked with Saddam Hussein since the early formative days of the Bath Party in the sixties. He later held important positions in the Bath regime and Revolutionary Command Council. He was also one of Saddam Hussein’s top military commanders and assumed command positions in the Kuwait occupation and the subsequent Gulf war operations. General Al-Duri thus incarnated "both the political and the military wings" of the Iraqi insurgency, and without a doubt, could be considered as the supreme “Iraqi Führer” at large. His death, if confirmed, would be a big step on the long road toward the end of the insurgency war.
