bye bye
Posted on 08/21/2003 7:40:22 AM PDT by MizSterious
TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - Ali Hassan al-Majid, a feared cousin of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) nicknamed "Chemical Ali" for his use of poison gas in attacks, has been captured by U.S. forces in Iraq (news - web sites), the U.S. military said on Thursday.
"We do have him and he was captured alive," U.S. Central Command spokesman Lt. Ryan Fitzgerald told Reuters.
Fitzgerald said no details were available on the arrest, where it took place, or whether Majid was injured.
Majid was No. 5 on a U.S. list of the 55 most-wanted Iraqis and the "king of spades" in a U.S. Army deck of cards depicting fugitive members of Saddam's government.
Majid's detention comes after the arrest this week of former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan in Mosul, the northern Iraqi city where Saddam's two sons were killed last month by U.S. troops.
"Coalition forces will continue to work at apprehending former members of Saddam Hussein's regime," said U.S. Central Command.
U.S. and British officials targeted Majid in early April in a bomb attack in Basra. British military officials said at the time they believed they had recovered his body.
But a nurse in Baghdad days later said he was in a hospital there joking with staff before making his escape.
Fitzgerald said Majid's house was attacked in Basra in early April on the belief he was there. "Obviously he was not there and if he was, he survived the attack," said Fitzgerald.
Majid was a ruthless member of Saddam's clan who played a leading role in the violent suppression of Iraq's Kurdish and Shi'ite Muslim rebels and the seven-month occupation of Kuwait that began in 1990.
He was best known for leading the "Anfal" (spoils of war) campaign against Kurdish rebels who took advantage of Iraq's 1980-88 war with Iran to step up their long campaign for autonomy in their northern heartlands.
HALABJA GASSING
Human rights groups say Majid's scorched earth policy led to the murder or disappearance of some 100,000 Kurds and the forced removal of many more. Hundreds of Kurdish villages and communities were destroyed.
In a single attack, some 5,000 men, women and children were killed in Halabja in March 1988, when government forces bombed and shelled the town with gas.
U.S. forces also said on Thursday they had arrested a senior Iraqi guerrilla commander after stopping him at a checkpoint near the restive town of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.
Gen. Rashid Mohammad, a commander of the Fedayeen guerrilla force that had a key role during Saddam Hussein's rule and has been blamed for many attacks on U.S. troops, was seized on Wednesday, Lt. Col. William Adamson said from Iraq.
Mohammad was carrying a guerrilla "shopping list" when arrested, with items including weapons, ammunition, computers, telephones and requests for funding jotted down on a note in his wallet. He also had a list of 10 Iraqi names that U.S. forces described as an assassination list.
U.S. officers blame Fedayeen fighters for scores of attacks on their troops in recent months, with the area around Baquba a particular hotspot.
Since major combat ended on May 1, 63 U.S. soldiers have been killed by Fedayeen and other loyalist fighters in Iraq.
Better idea: Give him to the Kurds....
"Not hardly."
Tom Daschle: I am saddened. Deeply saddened.
Good 'un. How 'bout:
"Life is hard. Even harder if you're stupid."
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