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70 killed capturing Saddam aide

REUTERS, Baghdad
Iraqi and US forces have arrested a man believed to be the most-wanted Saddam Hussein aide still on the run in a bloody raid in which 70 of his supporters have been killed and 80 captured, the government says.
The defence ministry said yesterday that Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri -who was sixth on the US list of the 55 most-wanted members of Saddam's regime and had a $10 million price on his head -- was captured in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown and powerbase north of Baghdad.
The top five on the list, including Saddam, his sons Uday and Qusay, and "Chemical Ali" Hassan al-Majid, have already been captured or killed. The seventh most-wanted man on the list, Special Security Organisation Director Hani Abd Latif Tilfah al-Tikriti, is still at large.
Iraqi Minister of State Wael Abdul al-Latif told Reuters it was "75 to 90 percent certain" the captured man was Ibrahim. He said 70 of the man's supporters were killed and 80 captured when they tried to prevent him being seized.
Latif said the captured man was suffering from leukemia and was in
very poor health.
The U.S. military has said Ibrahim was directly involved in organising and funding attacks on U.S. forces since the downfall of Saddam. In a deck of cards issued to US troops to help them identify fugitives, Ibrahim was the King of Clubs.
The news spread fast in Baghdad, and in some Shia districts residents fired AK-47s in the air in celebration.
Ibrahim was Saddam's number two in the Revolutionary Command Council, and held a senior post on a government committee in charge of northern Iraq when chemical weapons were used against the town of Halabja in 1988, killing thousands of Kurds.
The red-haired Ibrahim was born in 1942 near Tikrit, 160 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, the son of an ice seller.
Ibrahim was one of Saddam's top aides and most trusted confidants. His daughter was briefly married to Saddam's elder son Uday, bonding him within the ruling elite.
If confirmed, the news will be a welcome boost for Iraq's interim government as it tries to crush a deadly insurgency and grapples with a hostage crisis.
France's government said yesterday it remained hopeful that two French hostages would be freed, although its foreign minister returned empty-handed from a Middle East mission intended to secure their release.
"We have serious reasons to believe both of them are in good health and that a favourable outcome is possible," Foreign Minister Michel Barnier told reporters after discussing the hostage crisis with President Jacques Chirac.