Iraqi Kurds celebrate the hanging of ‘Chemical Ali’

One of Saddam Hussein's most notorious henchmen, Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known as 'Chemical Ali' because of his fondness for gassing his enemies, has finally met the same fate as his former leader. He was hanged yesterday after being sentenced to death last week for his decision to drop nerve and mustard gas on the people of Halabja on March 16, 1988. More than 5,000 people died, the majority of them innocent women and children.

"The condemned Ali Hassan al-Majid has been executed by hanging until death today," the Iraq government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in an official statement on Monday.

Majid, a cousin of Saddam's, was one of the ruling Ba'ath party's ugliest operators. He worked his way up from party security chief in the 1970s to become one of most powerful men in Iraq by the time of the Allied invasion in March 2003. He was the 'King of Spades' in the famous pack of cards of 'most wanted Iraqis' issued by the US military at the time and was captured in August. (Saddam himself was the Ace of Spades.)

Majid was acting as Saddam's pro-consul in northern Iraq when he was ordered in 1988 to deal with the Peshmerga rebels fighting on behalf of the Kurdish people. He approached the task with relish and in a seven-month campaign codenamed Anfal - or 'Spoils of War' - after a chapter in the Koran, he dispatched as many as 100,000 Kurds to their deaths.

When the Peshmerga took Halabja, Majid organised Iraqi aircraft to drop canisters of mustard gas and nerve agents - sarin, tabun and VX - on the town, totally unconcerned that civilians would die a horrible death. As the British journalist Patrick Cockburn once wrote of Majid, "His evident viciousness made him useful in jobs in which unrelenting and merciless cruelty were considered an asset".

Majid was originally sentenced to be hanged two years ago but legal wrangling kept him alive until yesterday.

Ali al-Dabbagh said Majid did not have to endure the insults heaped on Saddam when he was hanged in December 2006. "Everyone abided by instructions and the convicted was not subjected to any breach, chanting, abuse words or insults," he said.

However, Iraqi Kurds are reported to have reacted with joy. Mohammed al-Qaradaghi, cabinet secretary of Kurdistan's regional government, called his death "an occasion of happiness, especially for those who lost their children and loved ones". ·