article_snippet.sent: (CNN)Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former top deputy to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and more recently
article_snippet.sent: Al-Douri's was the highest-ranking member of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime to evade capture -- the "King of Clubs" in a deck of playing cards used by American troops to identify the most-wanted regime officials.
article_snippet.sent: Al-Douri's also was a man thought to have led the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein Sunni extremist group Naqshbandi Army.
article_snippet.sent: Al-Douri's was killed in an operation by Iraqi security forces and Shia militia members in the Hamrin Mountains between Tikrit and Kirkuk, Iraq, Shia militia commander Hadi al-Ameri said.
article_snippet.sent: The death of Al-Douri's was also reported by the governor of Salahuddin province, Raid al-Jubouri, who spoke by phone on Iraqi television.
article_snippet.sent: While officials are aware of Al-Douri's role in the Hussein regime, Patrick Ryder declined to comment about whether the United States or the coalition was targeting any specific individuals.
article_snippet.sent: Al-Douri's was a military commander and vice chairman of the country's revolutionary command council in Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime -- effectively Hussein's No. 2 man.
article_snippet.sent: The U.S. military had said that after the Iraqi leader's fall, Al-Douri's helped finance a Sunni insurgency with money
article_snippet.sent: A month before the invasion, Al-Douri's presided over a military parade in Mosul, an event covered by CNN, and Al-Douri's participation became one of the last times
article_snippet.sent: Al-Douri's was seen in public, covered by CNN.
article_snippet.sent: Al-Douri's saluted troops from the reviewing stand as they marched by.
article_snippet.sent: In subsequent years, several claims asserted that Al-Douri's was either killed or captured during the war and Al-Douri's aftermath.
article_snippet.sent: At the same time, a man claiming to be Al-Douri's released a number of audio messages over the years taunting Iraqi and the U.S. officials.
article_snippet.sent: In 2012, a series of videos appeared online purporting to show Al-Douri's deriding the Shiite-led government that took over Iraq after Hussein's ouster.
article_snippet.sent: CNN couldn't independently verify the authenticity of those videos on YouTube or the identity of the man speaking, though the man speaking bore a striking resemblance to Al-Douri's.
article_snippet.sent: In the clips, the man who claimed to be Al-Douri's wore an olive military uniform and sat behind a desk with an Iraqi flag in the background.
article_snippet.sent: the man who claimed to be al-Douri derided Iraq's Shiite-dominated government, led by then-Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, as well as what the man who claimed to be al-Douri described as meddling by neighboring Iran.
article_snippet.sent: At that time, nine years had passed since the invasion and, Al-Douri's claimed that Iraq was still in peril.
article_snippet.sent: Everyone can hear the sounds of danger echoing daily and threatening the country," Al-Douri's said.
highlights_snippet.sent: Al-Douri's was the highest-ranking member of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime to evade capture .