remember him better as the king of clubs, the most wanted man in the war in iraq took over as the head of the banned baath party replacing saddam hussein, linked directly to isis. let s go to new york. atika shubert has been covering the story for a long time for us. what more can you dell us about the operation that led to this man s death and are there any other major names from the so-called most wanted list still on the loose? nobody really who was the stature of al douri. he was the number six on that list. he was the right-hand man of saddam hussein, the most wanted there. there are other people who are still at large but they re much lower in rank, many of them believed to be perhaps somewhere in syria. may not have anything to do with the ongoing insurgency in iraq. al douri was a particularly well-known figure because of his role in the baathist party. now what we understand about the operation and this is all coming from iraqi sources at the
reports of that relationship fraying. that might be because they have completely different objectives. isis wants to establish the islamic caliphate, al douri s group wanted to re-establish the sunni/baathist regime that iraq had under saddam hussein. so completely different goals and aims and quite possibly after isis was able to take over so much territory, that s when we started to see any sort of whatever that alliance was, really start to show some strain. all right. atika, good explanation, thanks very much. atika shubert reporting. we will dig deeper in both these stories. the bombing near the u.s. consulate in erbil and the death of one of iraq s most wanted men. stay with us.
moment iraqi state television was airing the news that he was killed in what was described as a surprise operation between iraqi security forces and shia militia. he was apparently killed somewhere between tikrit and kirkuk. no report on who else was killed in that raid and they re saying at this point that while they think it s him, they think it s al douri they can t be 100% sure until they ve done dna tests to identify him as izzat ibrahim al douri. a lot of these former saddam loyalists, they ve joined forces with isis right? well you know, yes, and no. this is all kinds of shifting alliances. when isis first marched across northern iraq reports that al douri s group in particular had really at least tacitly, if not actively allowed isis to come through. there are reports of al douri s group fighting alongside isis but in recent months we heard
kurdistan in a sense is almost like a separate country within iraq. the kurds, for instance, are very careful who they let into the territory. they control what s odd, for instance is that iraqi citizens if they re not cureds and they arrive at the airport in erbil unless they have a local sponsor will not be allowed in. so they take their area the area they control very seriously and they try to control who enters and so security very much a concern for the kurdss in this incident even though in this case nos u.s. diplomatic personnel were harmed is cause for concern about the situation in erbil and in kurdistan. it certainly is. thanks very much ben. we ll stay on top of this story. staying in iraq a former top iraqi general under saddam husseins has been killed izzat ibrahim al douri, you may
adjustment to isis tactics they know they can t gogo toe to toe with an organized military. what you will see here and doesn t surprise me at all you will see the more terrorist tactics that will come out try to get car bombs in and iedss especially towards the american targets. so that s obviously a serious concern. colonel reese what s your reaction to the apparent killing of izzat ibrahim al douri one of the most wanted saddam loyalists, it s been about 12 years since the u.s.-led war against saddam hussein, but apparently they finally got limb him? hat office to the iraqi security forces. i spent several long nights in iraq over the years trying to find this gentleman. he was a slick, very slick guy who we could not capture. joint special operation command forces during that time be deck of 52 cards, they captured or killed roughly 42 members of that deck of cards, but it s a