BAGHDAD — Ali Hassan Majid, the notorious cousin of Saddam Hussein who earned the nickname "Chemical Ali" for using poisonous gas to kill thousands of Kurds, has been captured, the U.S. military said Thursday.
Majid, who at one point in the Iraq war had been reported killed, ranked fifth on the U.S. list of the 55 most-wanted Iraqi figures. He was the most powerful member of the former dictator's inner circle still at large, save Hussein himself. All but 15 on the list have been caught or killed, according to the U.S. Central Command.
Majid -- who directed nearly every major campaign of repression in Hussein's regime -- is also said to have ranked high on a list of potential war crimes suspects. Before the war, the Bush administration reportedly drew up a roster of about a dozen senior Iraqi officials who could be tried on war crimes charges in a post-Hussein Iraq.
Since the war, U.S. officials have said that Iraq would take the lead in such a trial, although the United States was likely to assist in prosecutions.
U.S. forces Thursday also reported the arrest of a man they described as a leader of a pro-Hussein militia. The man, Rashid Mohammed, was suspected of trying to organize a 600-strong group of anti-West guerrillas. Officials said that when he was captured 45 miles northeast of Baghdad, Mohammed had with him a piece of paper with 10 Iraqi names, possibly an assassination hit list, as well as a shopping list of explosives.
The arrests came as three more U.S. soldiers died and three more bodies were pulled from the wreckage of the United Nations headquarters here, bringing the death toll in Tuesday's truck bombing to 24. The U.N. has decided to evacuate a third of its staff in the wake of the attack, an official said.
A previously unknown group claimed responsibility for the bombing, but U.S. intelligence officials said they had never heard of the organization and did not place much credence in the claim.
A typed, two-page statement in Arabic from a group calling itself the Armed Vanguards of the Second Muhammad Army was shown on the Al Arabiya television network.
"We don't know of any group with that name," said a U.S. intelligence official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We don't know if this is a bogus group, or a new group, or whatever. We've heard of groups with names that are slight variations of that. We don't know anything about them either. But we don't have any reason to think they are involved."
Gen. John Abizaid, who heads the Central Command, said during a news conference at the Pentagon that there were indications that Majid had been connected to anti-American attacks while on the lam in Iraq. "Chemical Ali has been active in some ways in influencing people around him in a regional way," Abizaid said.
Majid's capture could prove to be useful to U.S. authorities. He would have been privy to the development and production of weapons of mass destruction, if such programs existed, and might have knowledge of Hussein's whereabouts.
British and U.S. forces reported in April that Majid had been killed in missile strikes on his home in the southern city of Basra, with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld announcing that Majid's "reign of terror" had ended. But about two months later, the administration acknowledged that the former army commander was probably still alive.
Few details emerged Thursday about Majid's capture. He apparently was taken into custody several days ago, but the announcement was held up.
To the Kurds and Shiites who crossed Majid's murderous path, he was nothing short of evil incarnate.
In 1988, he killed thousands of Kurdish civilians in northern Iraq and razed the villages of thousands more, and later put down a rebellion by Shiite Muslims in brutal fashion after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
A jubilant Majid was taped at Baath Party meetings at the end of the 1980s saying: "I will kill them all with chemical weapons! Who is going to say anything? The international community?"
Human Rights Watch said Thursday that Majid should be prosecuted on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
"The capture of Chemical Ali presents a rare opportunity to bring a measure of justice to the countless victims and their families who suffered under Baath Party rule," said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program.
Among Kurds, there was joy at Majid's capture -- and demands for justice.
In Sulaymaniyah, a city in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, surgeon Faiq Mohammed Gulpi said he wanted to see Majid tried and punished in Halabja, the town attacked with cyanide gas in March 1988 on Majid's orders. About 5,000 people, including many children, were killed.
"I felt extremely happy when I heard the news because it has ensured that the old regime of Saddam is completely ending," said Gulpi, 46. "I became more confident that Saddam Hussein will be captured and will be brought to justice and face the people's court."
