Baghdad, January 26: Iraq yesterday executed by hanging Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam Hussein’s chief enforcer and supervisor of mass killings, also known as “Chemical Ali” for using chemical weapons to kill tens of thousands of people.
He was the cruellest and most violent of top Iraqi leaders under Saddam Hussein, his first cousin to whom he was wholly loyal. He had already been sentenced to death four times, most recently earlier this month for the killing by poison gas of 5,000 Kurdish civilians at Halabja in 1988.
His execution was announced as suicide bombers driving vehicles packed with explosives blew themselves up close to three hotels in Baghdad killing at least 36 people and wounding 80. The attacks show that insurgents, most probably from the Iraqi branch of al-Qa’ida, have the capability to penetrate the centre of the capital despite many army and police checkpoints.
–Agencies