Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri was thought to have been killed last month but message appears to show feared figure discussing recent events

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The TV channel of Iraq’s former ruling Ba’ath party has released an audio recording purportedly of the elusive deputy of Saddam Hussein who some officials said had been killed in April.

Several officials and leaders of Shia militia groups had claimed to have killed Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri 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 Douri’s, arguing that they lacked DNA samples for comparison.

Friday’s audio recording was released by the Ba’ath party’s Al-Tagheer channel. A two-hour version was subsequently posted.

Douri clearly refers in the recording to events that have happened since rumours of his alleged death surfaced on 17 April, notably the deployment of Shia paramilitary groups in the Nukhayb region 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.”

An introduction to the full-length version of the recording says Douri was speaking at a recent meeting in Baghdad of the three main bodies of the Ba’ath.

Nicknamed “the Iceman” for his humble origins selling blocks of ice, he was the King of Clubs in the US Army’s deck of cards of most-wanted Iraqis.

The Army of the Men of the Naqshbandiyah Order – known by its Arabic initials JRTN and believed to be close to Douri – took part in a sweeping militant offensive that overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in June last year.

The Islamic State group was the driving force, however, and Douri had to align with the group. But in Friday’s recording he distanced himself from Isis.

“We do cross paths ... but what stops us from meeting is that even if we wanted to, they would not accept because they consider the Ba’ath infidels,” Douri said.

He used the word Daesh, an Arab acronym considered derogatory by Isis, and claimed that the group was detaining a third of the Ba’ath’s command.

Douri went on to claim the number of Isis victims in Iraq “does not equal 1% of those killed by the militias”.

“Except for what happened in Speicher, Speicher is a massacre that we denounce and condemn,” he said, in reference to the slaughter of hundreds of mostly Shia cadets captured in June last year from the Speicher base near Tikrit.

The Speicher massacre was a key moment in the mobilisation of Shiite fighters against Isis. Burial sites were discovered recently, when government forces retook Tikrit and surrounding towns.