Iraqi popular forces have confirmed the death of a former top aide to slain Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein

Iraqi popular forces have confirmed the death of a former top aide to slain Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The Kataib Hezbollah group announced on Sunday that DNA tests have proven that an individual killed by the popular forces in Tikrit, in northern Iraq, on April 17 is indeed Ibrahim al-Douri, a former vice president under Saddam.

The group had published a video earlier on Saturday showing the body of al-Douri.

The governor of the northern Province of Salahuddin also announced on Friday that the Saddam-era general had been killed.

However, al-Douri’s death has been announced more than once in the past and a spokesman for Saddam’s outlawed Ba’ath Party has previously denied the death.

The body of al-Douri will now be handed over to the Iraqi government for the further confirmation of his death.

Al-Douri was one of the most-wanted terrorists in Iraq, who volunteer forces said was killed in an operation in the south of the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. He remained at large following the US-led invasion of Iraq, which toppled Saddam in 2003. Since then he took part in terrorist activities against the Iraqi nation with the aim of causing unrest in the country. He later joined forces with the ISIL terrorists when the Takfiris started their campaign of terror in Iraq in early June 2014.