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thedrifter
06-06-03, 05:53 AM
Pentagon officials now not so sure airstrike killed 'Chemical Ali'


ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:28 p.m., June 5, 2003

WASHINGTON – U.S. officials had been confident that a coalition airstrike killed one of Iraq's most notorious officials, the man nicknamed "Chemical Ali." Now, they are not so sure.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that interrogations of Iraqi prisoners indicated Ali Hassan al-Majid might be alive.

Myers and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had said on April 7 they believed an airstrike on a house in southern Iraq had killed al-Majid. They showed reporters video of laser-guided bombs obliterating the house where a tipster told coalition forces al-Majid was staying.

"We believe that the reign of terror of Chemical Ali has come to an end. To Iraqis who have suffered at his hand, particularly in the last few weeks in that southern part of the country, he will never again terrorize you or your families," Rumsfeld said at the time.

An officer with the British military in Basra, Maj. Andrew Jackson, also said on that day that a body believed to be al-Majid was found in the rubble after the airstrike.

Myers and Rumsfeld, speaking to reporters after briefing members of Congress, did not elaborate on what they called "speculation" that al-Majid may have survived.

Al-Majid, a cousin of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, once ran Iraq's armed forces. His opponents called him "Chemical Ali" for his role in 1988 chemical weapons attacks that killed thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq.

He also has been linked to the bloody crackdown on Shiites in southern Iraq after their uprising following the 1991 Gulf War. He was governor of Kuwait during Iraq's seven-month occupation of its neighbor in 1990-1991 – an occupation that ended with Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War.

Al-Majid was a warrant officer and motorcycle messenger in the army before Saddam's Baath party led a coup in 1968. He was promoted to general and served as defense minister from 1991-95, as well as a regional party leader.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20030605-1528-iraq-chemicalali.html


Sempers,

Roger