Chemical Ali dead?

[HappyGamer2]

CNN tv says he is dead, body found and identified

 

[dahunan]

''Chemical'' Ali found dead in Basra
By Tini Tran, Associated Press, 4/7/2003 03:43
BASRA, Iraq (AP) Ali Hassan al-Majid, dubbed ''Chemical Ali'' by opponents of the Iraqi regime for ordering a 1988 poison gas attack that killed thousands of Kurds, has been found dead, a British officer said Monday.

Maj. Andrew Jackson of the 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment told The Associated Press that his superiors had confirmed the death of the man who was President Saddam Hussein's first cousin and one of the most brutal members of his inner circle.

Al-Majid apparently was killed on Saturday when two coalition aircraft used laser-guided munitions to attack his house in Basra. Jackson said the body was found along with that of his bodyguard and the head of Iraqi intelligence services in Basra.

Saddam had entrusted al-Majid with defense of southern Iraq against invading coalition forces.

Jackson said the discovery of al-Majid's body was one of the reasons the British decided to move infantry into the southern Iraqi city because they hoped with the top Iraqi leadership gone there, resistance might fall apart.

Believed to be in his fifties, al-Majid led a 1988 campaign against rebellious Kurds in northern Iraq in which whole villages were wiped out. An estimated 100,000 Kurds, mostly civilians, were killed.

He also has been linked to the bloody crackdown on Shiites in southern Iraq following a 1991 uprising following the Gulf War. He served as governor of Kuwait during Iraq's seven-month occupation of the emirate in 1990-1991.

Human rights groups had called for al-Majid's arrest on war crimes charges when he toured Arab capitals last January seeking to rally support against mounting U.S. pressure on Saddam's regime.

''Al-Majid is Saddam Hussein's hatchet man,'' Kenneth Roth, head of Human Rights Watch in New York, said at the time. ''He has been involved in some of Iraq's worst crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity.''
Click Link for rest of story - AP

 

[exp]

Good riddance.

 

[rickn]

was he found dead playing in one of his sand boxes?