Chemical Ali may still be alive

Notorious Iraqi commander Ali Hassan al-Majid - Chemical Ali - may still be alive.

British forces spokesman Chris Vernon said he was "99% sure" that Chemical Ali was killed in an air strike in the third week of the war. But Iraqi soldiers told a BBC reporter that they had seen him alive in his home town of Al-Amara in south-east Iraq.

Captain Vernon said the attack on Chemical Ali had been a turning point in the war.

"We had very good human intelligence," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"Critical was the whereabouts of Chemical Ali, and when we were able to take that building out, and we're pretty sure, 99% sure, that he was killed in that air strike, that really decapitated the brain, the final brain power of the Baath Party and that really set the conditions for us to come in, in the final move as we did."

Asked why he was not 100% sure that Chemical Ali was dead, Capt Vernon said: "If there is a body, it will be under a lot of rubble, but I am pretty sure that I can say almost absolutely that he was killed in that air raid, and we've had no subsequent sighting or any intelligence that he survived."

However, an unnamed Iraqi soldier said he saw Chemical Ali at 4.30pm local time near Al-Amara on the day after the coalition claimed to have killed him.

Chemical Ali and his entourage were driven into the town in a convoy of a Mercedes, two four-wheel drive Nissan patrols and a truck.

"The people gathered after Ali Hassan al-Majid got out from his car," the soldier told the BBC.

"They were encouraged after seeing him. They were from the militia, Fedayeen, and the Baath Party."

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