Posted on 04/05/2003 10:49:25 AM PST by Dog Gone
The chemical weapons fiend leading Saddam Hussein's forces in southern Iraq may have been killed by an air and artillery strike, British commanders said yesterday.
Saddam Hussein's cousin, Ali Hassan Al-Majid - dubbed "Chemical Ali" - was positively identified entering a building in Basra on Friday.
And he was believed to be still inside when it was blitzed by precision air and artillery strikes soon after.
Battle damage assessments were being examined together with intelligence reports in a bid to confirm the ruthless Saddam henchman is dead.
A source at the British Army Field HQ said yesterday: "Our information is that a man was positively identified as the man known as Chemical Ali.
"He was seen entering a building by a reliable source on the ground.
"The building was subsequently targeted and hit by both air strikes and artillery.
"There is a strong chance that anyone caught inside would have been killed or seriously injured.
"But we will not know whether the intended target was taken out until battle damage reports have been assessed."
No details were given on the building or its location as military analysts continued to run checks yesterday.
If 62-year-old Ali has been killed, it will be a major coup for the Allies and a crushing blow for his forces.
Command and control of pro-Saddam forces in Basra would be decimated - and the threat of desperate last ditch chemical weapons attacks drastically reduced.
Ali boasted that he masterminded doomsday attacks on Iraqi Kurds believed to have claimed 100,000 lives in the 80s.
His genocide included the 1988 gas bomb attack on the village of Halabja, which killed thousands of innocent civilians.
He also masterminded the 1990 invasion of Kuwait during which thousands were murdered and tortured before the Allies freed the oil-rich state.
Saddam has ordered him to take command of the southern sector of the country and use all means necessary to fight off the British-led assault on Basra.
But Ali has been increasingly nervous of the threat of assassination as the British net on Basra closed.
Sources said he had taken to moving from building to building under cover of darkness to ward off attack and never stays in one place for more than a few hours.
But he and his forces are hated by local factions eager to pass on information in his whereabout to British troops camped on the outskirts of town.
British SAS and SBS special forces are understood to be operating undercover in Basra.
It was unclear last night whether they played any role in the attack.
Britain's 7th Armoured Brigade continued to firm up their footholds on the outskirts of Basra yesterday.
Scots Dragoon Guards advanced two miles into the south of the city to set up a new perimeter.
The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers was also securing more ground across a vital canal bridge to the west.
Soldiers of the Black Watch regiment also reported treating a fleeing Iraqi man bleeding from stab wounds believed to have been inflicted in a punishment attack.
"Aggressive patrols" to the north, west, south and south east of Basra were continuing to be mounted by British units yesterday.
For practical purposes of fighting the war, it doesn't much matter if these guys are dead. Their communications have been cut, and they can't show their faces without risking assassination or allied bombs. They can't meet with their generals or inspect their troops.
Even before the war, Saddam was unwilling to let anyone he didn't trust into his presence. That meant that his orders had to be relayed through others. Since the whole war machine is built so it cannot act without instructions from above, that means that it has been basically headless since the war began, whether or not these guys are clinically dead.
After the war, of course, it would be nice to identify their bodies. But as many have pointed out, we never found Hitler's body, and as it turned out it wasn't all that important except for a few thriller writers.
Stalin found it, VERY carefully documented it and paranoidly reburied it about a dozen times. History channel has an hour show detailing this including showing the top of his skull from KGB archives.
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