Iraqi forces hunt for Saddam deputy

Iraqi police raided a village near the hometown of Saddam Hussein in the hunt for his deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, the most wanted former regime official still on the run, an official said on Saturday.

Abdullah Hussein Jbara, deputy governor of Salaheddin province of which Tikrit is the capital, told AFP that forces along with members from the local anti-Qaeda front, raided the village of Al-Sada al-Nuaim on Friday after a tip that Duri was holed up there.

"The force did not find Duri but did find documents confirming his link with armed groups in the northern provinces," Jbara said.

The documents included recent letters written by insurgent leaders to Duri and included information on various factions and their operations, he added.

One document detailed a planned attack on Mosul's Badush prison that took place in March.

Dozens of prisoners escaped during the prison break, including a key al-Qaeda leader Abu Maysara, a Syrian, according to the U.S. military.

An Iraqi security official said on Saturday that troops saw an Opel car near a house in the village and after searching it they found a computer, small arms, night vision binoculars and 200,000 dollars in cash.

In October, media reports indicated that Duri had formed a new insurgent group called the Supreme Command for Jihad and Liberation.

The military said Maysara, a close aide of al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was subsequently killed in November near the central town of Samarra.

Duri was the number two in Iraq's decision-making Revolutionary Command Council under Saddam.

The United States sees him as the heart of an alliance between Baathist loyalists and Islamist militants fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces. In November 2003 they offered a 10-million-dollar reward for his death or capture.

In the past few months, Iraqi and U.S. forces several times have been backed by members of local anti-Qaeda groups during raids.

Around 80,000 Iraqis, mostly Sunni Arabs paid around 300 dollars a month, have aligned themselves with the U.S. military and formed local Al-Sahwa (Awakening) councils to guard their neighborhoods and fight Al-Qaeda militants.