Chemical Ali 'could still be alive'

Majid was believed to have died early in the war

Iraqi General Ali Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein better known as "Chemical Ali", may be alive, according to US military officials.

He had previously been presumed dead, after coalition aircraft targeted his palace on the outskirts of the southern city of Basra in April.

But US Central Command and officials at the Pentagon now say his fate is uncertain.

There's some speculation that he may be alive

Donald Rumsfeld
US Defence Secretary

Profile: 'Chemical Ali'

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he did not know whether General Majid was dead or alive.

"They attacked locations where they believed him to be," Mr Rumsfeld told journalists on Thursday.

"There was some speculation afterward that they thought that he had been killed. Now there's some speculation that he may be alive."

General Majid ranks fifth in the US list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis.

Crushing rebellions

During the war the general was entrusted with defending southern Iraq against coalition forces.

He was given the nickname of "Chemical Ali" in the 1980s, when he ordered the gassing of Kurdish towns and villages - notably the attack on Halabja in 1988.

The New York-based organisation Human Rights Watch has said he was responsible for the deaths or disappearances of about 100,000 non-combatant Kurds.

In the following years, he was reportedly charged with crushing any uprising against Saddam Hussein's regime.

In 1991, he suppressed the Shiite Muslim insurgency that erupted after then US President George Bush exhorted Iraqis to overthrow the Iraqi leader the wake of the first Gulf War.