'King of Clubs killed'

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former top deputy toSaddam Hussein and more recently a key figure in Sunni extremist groups battling the Iraqi government, has been killed in a security operation in that country, Iraqi state-run television reported Friday.

Al-Douri was the highest-ranking member of Hussein's regime to evade capture -- the "King of Clubs" in a deck of playing cards used by American troops to identify themost-wanted regime officials.

He also was a man thought to have led the post-Hussein Sunni extremist group Naqshbandi Army. Military analysis website Globalsecurity.org says the Naqshbandi Army supports ISIS, the group that has taken over parts of Iraq and Syria.

Al-Douri was killed in an operation by Iraqi security forces and Shia militia members between Tikrit and Kirkuk, Iraq, Shia militia commander Hadi al-Ameri said.

His death also was reported by the governor of Salahuddin province, Raid al-Jubouri, who spoke by phone on Iraqi television. Al-Ameri said DNA tests would be performed to confirm Al-Douri's identity.

Al-Ameri's militia is a predominantly Shiite fighting group that worked with Iraqi troops earlier this month to liberate the Iraqi city of Tikrit from ISIS.

Al-Douri's past

Al-Douri 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.

Hussein's regime fell during a U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The U.S. military had said that after the Iraqi leader's fall, al-Douri helped finance a Sunni insurgency with money he transferred to Syria before the government collapsed.