BAGHDAD, Sept 5 (AFP) - Saddam Hussein`s ailing former right-hand man Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri has been arrested after fierce clashes with his supporters that left about 70 people dead or injured, Iraqi officials said Sunday.
"Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri was arrested on the outskirts of Tikrit," a defence ministry official told AFP.
Ibrahim, Iraq`s former vice-president, is ranked number six in the deck of cards of most wanted officials issued after last year`s US-led invasion of Iraq.
"He had many militants around him who tried to rescue him. Initial reports say there were around 70 people killed or wounded in these clashes," interior ministry spokesman Colonel Adnan Abdelrahman said.
Ibrahim "was arrested by the Iraqi national guard in an area between Ad-Dawr and Tikrit. He was in a clinic having a blood transfusion because he had leukemia," he added.
Ad-Dawr is the village where Saddam Hussein was captured in December 2003.
The US military placed a bounty of 10 million dollars on Ibrahim`s head last year, accusing him of financing insurgent groups.
Abdelrahman said Ibrahim was captured on Saturday and was now in the hands of the national guard, but did not disclose where he was being held.
"We considered to be the main achievement for the national guard and it will be a great boost to the people of Iraq" he said.
A spokesman for the US military`s 1st Infantry Division -- responsible for Salaheddin province which includes Tikrit -- said he was not aware of any operation to capture Ibrahim.
"I can`t confirm it," said Major Neal O`Brien. The only major operation in the last 48 hours was a raid on a mortar cell late Friday," he said.
Ibrahim, the prime mover behind the ousted regime`s adoption of Islamist rhetoric through the 1990s, has been accused by Washington of fostering an unholy alliance between former Baathists and Islamist militants in post-war Iraq.