With the capture of Saddam Hussein, 41 of the 55 fugitives on the military’s most wanted list of former Iraqi leaders have either been killed or captured.
Some of the most notorious members of the former regime are no longer at large, including Hussein’s two sons, Qusai and Udai, who were killed in a July 22 attack by U.S. forces.
Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali” for his reported role in directing poison gas attacks against Kurdish villages during the 1980s, was captured in August.
According to the U.S. Army’s Central Command, 13 people remain unaccounted for. One was released–a former defense minister who surrendered in September.
Nevertheless, some of the Iraqi leaders still at large are considered serious threats to American forces, including confidants of Hussein believed to have access to stores of money and munitions and networks of contacts that could aid the insurgency.
“A good handful of key security people are still out there,” said Phebe Marr, author of a history of modern Iraq and a former senior fellow at National Defense University.
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Military officials recently have focused on Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Hussein’s former second-in-command and one of the three surviving plotters who launched the 1968 coup that installed Hussein’s Baath Party.
al-Douri, the “king of clubs” in the playing-card deck of fugitives distributed to coalition soldiers, is sixth on the most wanted list and the leading figure still at large.
Military officials in Iraq have said they believe al-Douri may be helping direct insurgent attacks, possibly serving as a paymaster. Others doubt he is playing an important role because he is 61, seriously ill with leukemia and underwent a lengthy hospital stay before the war.
The coalition posted a $10 million reward for al-Douri’s capture. Military officials believe they came close earlier this month, during a raid on a village near Kirkuk in northern Iraq during which more than 50 suspected insurgents were arrested. Members of the country’s Governing Council initially announced his capture but had to retract those statements.
Marr said other, younger fugitives on the most-wanted list pose a potentially greater threat in assisting the insurgency.
Hani al-Latif Tilfah, director of Hussein’s Special Security Organization, and Rafi al-Latif Tilfah, the regime’s director of general security–close relatives who are numbers 7 and 15 on the list–are members of Hussein’s inner circle.
The two men have deep and wide connections among tribes that are loyal to Hussein and they could draw on those ties to recruit for the insurgency. They also would have access to concealed stores of money and munitions as well as a network of contacts through their security organizations.
Other leaders of Hussein’s carefully vetted security organizations remain at large. They include Sayf al-Din Fulayyih Hasan Taha, chief of staff of the Republican Guard, No. 14 on the list, and Tahir Jalil Haboush, chief of the Iraqi intelligence service, No. 16.