Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi is a Fedayeen Saddam Hussein

Fedayeen Saddam was a paramilitary organization loyal to the former Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. The name was chosen to mean "Saddam's Men of Sacrifice". At its height, the group had 30,000-40,000 members.

Speaking at a news conference, Al Alawi explained that it had become increasingly clear that ISIL and Ba’athist were not only in league but quite often one and the same.

As it turned out Al Baghdadi was a former militia man.

He added that Iraq intelligence services had warned the state of the presence of thousands upon thousands of foreign fighters in Iraq, all came to destabilize the country and destroy Iraq’ state institutions in view of re-establishing a version of the former regime.

But Iraq armed forces are re-gaining last ground, determined not to allow extremists to sow terror throughout Iraq.