Baghdad - TV channels with links to Iraq's former ruling Baath party on Friday released an audio recording purportedly of the elusive Saddam Hussein deputy some officials said had been killed last month.
Several officials and leaders of Shiite militia groups had claimed to have killed Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri more than a month ago near the city of Tikrit.
Pictures had emerged of the body of a red-haired man bearing some resemblance to Saddam's feared deputy, who is the most senior former regime member believed to still be at large.
The authorities, however, have since been unable to positively identify the body as Duri's, arguing that they lacked DNA samples for comparison.
Friday's two-hour audio recording was released by the pro-Baath Al-Faris Al-Arabi and Al-Ezz channels. A shorter version was aired moments earlier by Al-Tagheer, a Jordan-based station believed to be close to the Baath but which denies any links.
Duri clearly refers in the recording to events that have happened since rumours of his alleged death surfaced on April 17, notably the deployment of Shiite paramilitary groups in the Nukhayb region earlier this month.
"Nukhayb represents a strategic position for Iran inside Iraq, and one of the aims of occupying Nukhayb is to open a front against Saudi Arabia, and connect with the fronts in Syria and Lebanon after the northern passages were closed," he said.
"I affirm in this gathering that what's happening today in our country is a direct and a comprehensive Persian occupation, under the obnoxious cover of sectarianism," he said.
An introduction to the full-length version of the recording says Duri was speaking at a recent meeting in Baghdad of the three main bodies of the Baath.
AFP
