Naseer Al-Nahr, Asharq Al-Awsat

BAGHDAD, 3 December 2003 — US forces failed to capture Saddam Hussein’s deputy, Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri, after a massive, 12-hour swoop on the north-central Iraqi town of Hawijah yesterday.

“Al-Douri was not captured in this raid,” Maj. Doug Vincent, spokesman for the 173rd Airborne Division, which mounted the huge search operation, told reporters who accompanied the 1,200 troops involved.

There was no immediate word on whether operations carried out elsewhere in the region turned up the alleged mastermind behind many of the attacks on the US-led coalition. There is a $10 million price tag on his head.

The principal target of the search in this town of 80,000 people, 45 km (28 miles) west of Iraq’s northern oil center of Kirkuk, was someone who had a “close relation with Al-Douri,” a US officer told reporters.

The division’s commander, Col. William Neville, said the operation was still ongoing as of 7:20 p.m. (1620 GMT) and that all roads in or out remained closed to Iraqis.

“The coalition, in conjunction with local police, is conducting an operation in Hawijah against criminals, terrorist and arms caches. It’s an ongoing operation,” said Neville.

A total of 27 people were arrested and seven rocket-propelled grenades, 56 Kalashnikovs and several improvised explosive devices of the sort favored by anti-US insurgents seized, the colonel said.

Resident Marwan Mohammed Hawijah said that at 5:00 a.m., as he prepared for the Fajr prayer, he saw a convoy of 200 vehicles enter the town. “They had lists of suspects with photographs attached and they were accompanied by Iraqis,” he said.

Mohammed said two helicopters and two planes had flown overhead during the operation. He said he had heard several rounds of gunfire and also several blasts, but added that they might have been percussion bombs.

He said the Americans had apologized for barring him from returning into the city.

Earlier, sources in Iraq’s Governing Council said Ibrahim had been either seized or killed in the raid.

Kirkuk police chief Torhan Abulrahman said US forces and Iraqi police had mounted the joint sweep in Hawijah after information from one of Ibrahim’s wives, captured earlier this month, suggested he was in the area.

A veteran political ally of Saddam, he is sixth on the US list of the 55 top Iraqi fugitives, and all those in the top five except for Saddam have been killed or captured.

The US military said last month he was directly involved in attacks on US troops.

The raid came as another US soldier died in a bombing.