Top Iraqi militant leader \\\'killed\\\'

Fugitive Iraqi militant leader Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former right-hand man to Saddam Hussein, has been killed, Iraqi officials say. They say he died in fighting with government troops in Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad. Al-Douri, 72, led the Naqshbandi Order insurgent group, a key force behind the recent rise of Islamic State (IS). He was deputy to Saddam Hussein, who was ousted when US-led forces invaded Iraq in 2003 and executed in 2006.     — BSS