Profile: 'Chemical Ali'

Ali Hassan al-Majid was an important powerbroker in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. He was known as "Chemical Ali" for his role in alleged gas attacks on northern Iraq, during the offensive against the Kurds in 1988.

He was convicted on 24 June 2007 of genocide in the so-called Anfal campaign of 1988 and sentenced to death by hanging.

His execution was finally approved by Iraq's presidency in February 2008, after a delay of several months because of legal wranglings.

As the Iraqi president's paternal cousin, he sat astride two pillars of the Iraqi regime - Saddam Hussein's extended family and the Baath Party.

Before the fall of the regime, Arab press reports cast him in the part of a family kingmaker, playing a significant role in the simmering rivalry for succession between Saddam Hussein's sons, Qusay and Uday.

After several years without a ministerial position, al-Majid left his behind-the-scenes role in the upper strata of the Baath Party as Saddam Hussein placed Iraq on a war footing.

In March 2003, he was appointed to head the southern region - one of four senior commanders reporting directly to the president.

A month later, British officials said they believed he had been killed in a coalition air strike in the southern city of Basra.

But in June, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld conceded that he did not know whether he was dead or alive.

Two months later, US military officials announced that they had captured him.

Kurdish offensive

Al-Majid was appointed governor of northern Iraq in March 1987, marking the beginning of a sustained offensive, known as the "Anfal Campaign", by Iraqi troops against the Kurdish population.

Kurdish organisations describe the events which followed as genocide.

A decree signed by al-Majid, dated 3 June 1987, stated: "Within their jurisdiction, the armed forces must kill any human being or animal present in these areas."

Human rights campaigners say the Iraqi army then proceeded to kill tens of thousands of Kurdish civilians in gas attacks and by summary execution.

'Governor of Kuwait'

Iraq's invasion of Kuwait ended al-Majid's career in the north.

Following the annexation of the Gulf state in August 1990 he became effectively "governor" of what Baghdad called "Iraq's 19th governorate".

Although he was replaced in that position in November 1990, in March 1991 al-Majid was promoted to minister of the interior.

The British pressure group Indict accuses him of crimes against humanity for his role in suppressing the Kurdish and Shia-led uprising which broke out as Iraqi troops fled Kuwait.

After a period as defence minister from 1991 to 1995, he was relieved of his ministerial duties.

However, he continued to hold important Baath Party posts, as a member of the ruling Revolution Command Council and leader of the Baath Party in Salah-al-Din governorate, which included Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit.

Family defectors

Al-Majid's position was threatened in 1995, when two of his nephews, Saddam Hussein's sons-in-law, Hussein Kamil al-Majid and Saddam Kamil al-Majid, defected to Jordan with their families.

He then personally led the so-called "jihadi offensive", which resulted in the murder of the two brothers, their father (his own brother) and several others for treason.

Family feuds during peace time did not prevent Saddam Hussein from turning to trusted relatives for support in times of war.

Renewed US and British bombing raids on Iraq in December 1998 saw al-Majid return to Iraq's sensitive border with Kuwait. He was appointed as commander of a newly-formed southern region - a role he would take up again in 2003, as Iraq once again prepared for war.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.