by Dhiya Hamid
AD-DAWR, Iraq, Sept 5 (AFP) - Saddam Hussein`s feared right-hand man Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri -- has finally been captured after fierce clashes with his supporters that left scores of casualties, Iraqi officials said Sunday.
The loyal Saddan henchman, who US commanders accuse of bankrolling the insurgency that has dogged their troops for nearly 18 months, was seized as he received a blood transfusion in a clinic near his and Saddam`s hometown of Tikrit on Saturday, the officials said.
After they placed a 10 million-dollar bounty on his head last November, US commanders said they believed the 62-year-old`s leukaemia would eventually prove his Achilles heel, forcing him to break cover on a regular basis for treatment.
"Iraqi national guards and US forces obtained intelligence that Ibrahim was in Ad-Dawr clinic," guard commander, Colonel Abdullah Juburi, told AFP in Tikrit.
"They surrounded the area and, as he was leaving the clinic, they arrested him.
"There were 100 of his supporters in the area, who clashed with the Iraqi national guard," in an attempt to prevent the arrest, Juburi said.
The interior ministry in Baghdad said around 70 people were killed or injured in the clashes, according to a preliminary toll.
Ibrahim was in very bad health, ministry spokesman Colonel Adnan Abdelrahman added. Juburi said he was now in the hands of the national guard but would not say where.
Saddam`s longtime deputy, Ibrahim was ranked number six in the deck of cards of most wanted officials issued after last year`s US-led invasion.
His capture was the most high-profile coup for the coalition in Iraq since the announcement on December 13 of the capture of Saddam Hussein, who was found hiding in a hole on a farm in the same village of Ad-Dawr.
Residents of the Saddam loyalist stronghold were grief-stricken after the announcement of Ibrahim`s capture.
All shops in the village closed their doors immediately afterwards, an AFP correspondent witnessed.
But in Baghdad, officials hailed a major coup for the much criticised Iraqi security services and the caretaker government of Prime Minsiter Iyad Allawi.
"It will be a great boost to the people of Iraq," the interior ministry spokesman said.
The commander of the national guard in the northern oil centre of Kirkuk said it was the force`s local knowledge that had enabled it to succeed where US troops and intelligence agents had failed.
"Most of the national guards were from the Tikrit area themselves, which is why he was located to easily," Major General Anwar Hamed Amin told AFP.
The US military had no immediate comment on the operation, declining even to confirm Ibrahim`s capture.
The intelligence that he may possess about the organization of the deadly insurgency in the Sunni Muslim belt north and west of the capital is likely to be keenly sought after by US commanders.
They accuse him of using Saddam`s hidden stashes of hard currency to buy jobless Iraqis to serve as the insurgency`s footsoldiers.
They also accuse him of using his reputation as a devout Muslim to create an unholy alliance between former regime loyalists and Islamic militants.
The loyal henchman of the ousted president is now set to join his longtime boss in the dock for a trial that could be just weeks away.
"The trial of Saddam Hussein and the rest of his clique, including Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, will start before the Iraqi elections scheduled for January," State Minister Qassem Daoud announced during a visit to Kuwait on Sunday.