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Chemical Ali may still be alive, says US
EFLUS officials now say they are not so sure that a coalition air strike killed "Chemical Ali", one of Iraq's most notorious officials. General Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said interrogations of Iraqi prisoners indicated Ali Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein, might be alive. And DNA testing of the remains? Myers and US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld had said on April 7 they believed an air strike on a house in southern Iraq had killed al-Majid. They showed reporters a 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 terrorise you or your families," Rumsfeld said at the time. A British officer in Basra, Major Andrew Jackson, also said on that day that a body believed to be al-Majid was found in the rubble after the air strike. Myers and Rumsfeld, speaking after briefing members of Congress, did not elaborate on what they called "speculation" that al-Majid may have survived. Posted by: Bulldog 2003-06-06 |
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