Iraqi cleric Sadr will assign a squad to kill former Saddam aide Douri

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Shia cleric and militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr has vowed to form a special team to arrest or assassinate former Saddam Hussein aide Ezzat al-Douri.

Answering questions by his followers on his online portal, Sadr, commenting on a recent video that purports to show a speech by Douri, Saddam’s vice president, said :” after the elections, we intend to activate a special squad to search for him again, arrest him or kill him”.

Sadr referred to occasional reports about Douri’s death. “Beware so that corrupt officials do not repeat the cliche of his death, which appears later to be a lie”.

On Wednesday, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s security committee, denied Douri’s existence in Iraq, deeming his lately circulated video “a declaration of bankruptcy”.

Douri, speaking in the video, commemorating the establishment of the now-defunct Baath Party, which he claimed to had been from Baghdad, warned of “a popular armed revolt to eliminate the traitors”. He blamed the current authorities for the death of millions of Iraqis and destruction of Iraqi cities.

Douri’s exact whereabouts have been unknown since a U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 toppled former leader Saddam Hussein.  Occasional reports have been made of his death but none were confirmed.