Chemical Ali executed by hanging in Baghdad
Saddam Hussein's cousin and notorious enforcer Ali Hassan al-Jajid, known as Chemical Ali, executed in Baghdad
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By Darren Estwick. |  |
Monday, 25, Jan 2010 02:35
By Matthew Champion.
Saddam Hussein's cousin and notorious enforcer Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali, has been executed.
Al-Majid was executed by hanging a week after being sentenced to death for the fourth time over the gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988.
Five thousand people, primarily women and children, died from the lethal combination of mustard gas and the nerve agents Tabun, Sarin and VX that was sprayed on Halabja by planes flying over the town.
State television interrupted normal broadcasting to announce the execution of al-Majid, who earned his nom de guerre through persistent use of gas and chemical nerve agents.
Saddam's cousin has already been sentenced to death three times by courts in Iraq; for the al-Anfal campaign targeting Kurds in the 1980s, crushing a Shia Muslim revolt in 1991 and launching a purge against Shia Muslims in Baghdad's Sadr City in 1999.
His execution came on the same day dozens died in a triple car bombing at Baghdad hotels used by western journalists and businessmen.