Izzat Ibrahim: King of Clubs is back

Now, after a decade as a fugitive, and believed by many to be dead, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri - one of the late Iraqi dictator`s most trusted acolytes - appears to have re-emerged as the spiritual figurehead of a resurgent movement dedicated to restoring Saddam Hussein`s Ba`ath Party to power.

The 70 year-old, on whose head the US set a $10m bounty and who helped Saddam lead his 1968 coup, is thought to be leading a group of regime die-hards blamed for a major upsurge in violence across the country.

Last month, in some of the fiercest fighting since US troops left Iraq, gunmen attacked Iraqi army units in northern Iraq, set up their own checkpoints, and even briefly routed troops from a small town north of Baghdad, which they declared to be "Iraq`s first liberated territory".

Overwhelmingly drawn from the Sunni Muslim minority, their stated goal is to topple the Shia-dominated government of President Nouri-al Maliki, which they believe has been left vulnerable since the departure of US troops from Iraq 18 months ago.

Mr al-Douri`s militia is thought to have been the main backers of the which was sparked by a heavy-handed crackdown on an anti-government protest in Hawija, a dusty town in what US troops used to call the "Sunni Triangle".

 The clashes, which claimed the lives of nearly 200 people, including at least a dozen soldiers, prompted warnings that the country was at risk of "civil war" again.

Diplomats fear they could plunge Iraq into an even worse version of the sectarian conflict that cost an estimated 30,000 lives between 2006-7 - this time without the US military there to stop it.

 Wearing an olive-green Ba`athist uniform, he called for the overthrow of Baghdad`s new "Persian" government - a reference to Mr Maliki`s closeness to the Shia regime in neighbouring Iran.

"The people of Iraq and all its nationalist and Islamic forces support you until the realisation of your demands for the fall of the Persian alliance," he said, speaking in a slow, rasping whisper.