Baghdad: The wanted deputy of executed dictator Saddam Hussain praised the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) jihadists who took over large swathes of the country last month as heroes in an unauthenticated audio message released on Saturday.

The recording features a 15-minute speech in a raspy, quavering voice purported to be that of 72-year-old Ezzat Ebrahim Al Douri, who was Iraq’s vice-president when US-led coalition forces invaded in 2003.

The voice in the recording, which AFP could not immediately confirm to be that of Al Douri, praised “some groups of [insurgents] Ansar Al Sunna and, in addition to these, the heroes and knights of Al Qaida and the Islamic State [of Iraq and the Levant].”

The Isil has been fighting in Syria and Iraq and on June 29 proclaimed a “caliphate” straddling both countries and headed by Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, who now calls himself Caliph Ebrahim.

Its fighters spearheaded a devastating military offensive by a coalition of militant groups that swept through large swathes of northern and western Iraq.

The onslaught was contained barely 90km from the capital Baghdad, exacerbating sectarian tensions nationwide and pushing Iraq to the brink of disintegration.

“We give them a special salute with pride, appreciation and love,” said the man in the recording, introduced by another voice as the great commander of the Baath party.

“A dear salute to their leaders, which issued a general amnesty on every one who betrayed himself, betrayed God, betrayed his country but then atoned.”

He then went on to list several, sometimes obscure, militant groups believed to have rallied behind Isil for last month’s offensive.

Saddam’s regime was secular and Ezzat Al Douri is believed to be the leader of Jaysh Rijal Al Tareq Al Naqshbandi (JRTN), or Naqshbandiya order, a group of Sufi inspiration long seen as a rival to jihadist groups such as Isil.

The latest such message attributed to Saddam’s red-haired right-hand man, one of the former regime’s most recognisable figures, was released in January 2013.

After the December 2003 capture of Saddam, the wiry general nicknamed Red Moustache by some became the most senior figure, the King of Clubs, in the US army’s infamous deck of cards of wanted Iraqis.

He was best known to Iraqis as The Iceman for his humble origins selling blocks of ice on the streets of Mosul, Iraq’s second city and now a key jihadist hub.

Al Douri rose to become the number two official in the Revolution Command Council in Saddam’s regime and was seen as one of the few men in the country who could stand up to the former dictator.

He was suffering from leukaemia at the time of the invasion and thought by many to have died.

But his name resurfaced in unverified recordings linked to the JRTN, which appears to have evolved from a network of influential Sunnis akin to freemasonry into a fully-fledged armed rebel group bent on undermining the Shiite majority’s stranglehold on power.