| CHEMICAL ALI, NABBED!
WASHINGTON, Aug 21 — Ali Hasan al-Majid, a feared cousin of Saddam Hussein nicknamed “Chemical Ali” for his use of poison gas in attacks, has been captured by U.S. forces in Iraq, U.S. Central Command said on Thursday. U.S. forces in Iraq also announced they had arrested a senior Iraqi guerrilla commander who they said was carrying a list of 10 Iraqis marked for assassination.
Central Command said al-Majid — no. 5 on a U.S. list of the 55 most wanted Iraqis and the “king of spades” in a U.S. Army deck of cards depicting fugitive members of Saddam’s government — was in custody.
The Associated Press quoted an unidentified senior defense official as saying that al-Majid was captured on Sunday in the company of bodyguards, but not with other top Iraqis. The official did not say where or how he was captured.
Al-Majid was a ruthless member of Saddam’s clan who played a leading role in the violent suppression of Iraq’s Kurdish and Shiite Muslim rebels and the seven-month occupation of Kuwait which began in 1990.
U.S. officials at first thought that al-Majid was killed in April in an airstrike on a house in southern Iraq, near Basra. But Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in June that interrogations of Iraqi prisoners indicated that he might be alive.
Saddam’s paternal first cousin and a former army sergeant, al-Majid was considered one of the most powerful men in Saddam’s inner circle.
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RUTHLESSLY PUT DOWN KURD REBELLION
The nickname “Chemical Ali” was given to him by foes after he ordered the use of chemical weapons to quell a rebellion by Kurds in northern Iraq. In a single attack, some 5,000 men, women and children were killed in Halabja in March 1988 when government forces bombed and shelled the town with gas.
The attacks were part of the “Anfal” (spoils of war) campaign against Kurdish rebels who took advantage of Iraq’s 1980-88 war with Iran to step up their long campaign for autonomy in their northern heartlands.
Human rights groups say al-Majid’s scorched-earth policy led to the murder or disappearance of some 100,000 Kurds and the forced removal of many more. Hundreds of Kurdish villages and communities were destroyed.
Al-Majid also has been linked to the bloody crackdown on Shiites in southern Iraq after their uprising following the 1991 Gulf War. He was appointed governor of Kuwait during Iraq’s seven-month occupation in 1990-1991, which led to the first Gulf War.
It was not immediately known whether al-Majid had been playing a role in organizing anti-American resistance in recent months.
Encarta: Iraq profile
GUERRILLA COMMANDER ARRESTED
Meanwhile, U.S. forces in Iraq announced that they had arrested a senior Iraqi guerrilla commander after stopping him at a checkpoint near the restive town of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.
Gen. Rashid Mohammad, a commander of the Fedayeen guerrilla force that had a key role during Saddam’s rule and has been blamed for many attacks on U.S. troops, was seized on Wednesday, said Lt. Col. William Adamson.
Mohammad was carrying what Adamson described as an “assassination list” bearing the names of 10 Iraqis who have cooperated with U.S. forces. He did not identify those on the list.
He said the Fedayeen commander also had a “shopping list” that listed items such as weapons, ammunition, computers, telephones and requests for funding in his wallet, Adamson said.
U.S. officers blame Fedayeen fighters for scores of attacks on their troops in recent months, with the area around Baquba a particular hot spot.
Since major combat ended on May 1, 63 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq.
News of the captures of al-Majid and Mohammad came on the heels of the arrest this week of former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan.
Kurdish forces of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) captured Ramadan on Monday in Mosul, the northern Iraqi city where Saddam’s two sons were killed last month by U.S. troops, and turned him over to U.S. authorities.
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