Vagueness on al-Douri fate

The Iraqi interim government tried yesterday to get out of the state of confusion and vagueness over the news of arresting Ezzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the former Iraqi vice president.

One assistant for the Iraqi prime minister Eyad Allawi said yesterday that there is one person under detention and is going medical tests to know whether he is Ezzat al-Douri or not.

This announcement came after the contradictory official and non- official news in Iraq in addition to the American silence concerning the fate of al-Douri.

The Iraqi defense minister Hazem al-Shalan denied a report by his ministry which said that al-Douri was arrested in Tikrit on Sunday. A matter which raised more vagueness on this matter.

Al-Shalan said that the reports which talked of al-Douri's detention are baseless.

He added in statements to the Lebanese TV "we do not have information on the detention operation and what was stated in the statement of the ministry of defense to this respect is baseless.."

For its part, the Pentagon refused to confirm or deny the detention of al-Douri. A spokesman said that the recent information he had received indicate that he was not the one. However, he said he can not confirm, nor deny the detention news.