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Wow, those four guys are complete idiots and should be jailed...

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[OMEN]

'Chemical Ali' was sentenced to death in June 2007
The execution of Saddam Hussein's cousin and henchman "Chemical Ali" has been approved by Iraq's presidency.

He was condemned to death on genocide charges for killing 100,000 Kurds during the 1988 Anfal campaign against the Kurds in northern Iraq.

Chemical Ali - whose real name is Hassan al-Majid - was initially sentenced to death in June last year but legal wranglings held up the case.

The execution was approved two days ago, to be carried out within 30 days.

He was convicted along with two other top officials - Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, a senior military chief, and the former defence minister, Sultan Hashem.

Poison gas

THE ANFAL CAMPAIGN
Anfal (English: Spoils of War) took place between February and August 1988
Officially it was a clampdown on Kurdish separatism in the north
With a civilian death toll of up to 180,000, Kurds regard it as a campaign of genocide
Mustard gas and nerve agents were used in air attacks
Other victims were summarily executed or died in captivity

The presidency, which is made up of President Jalal Talabani and two vice-presidents, has not yet approved the hanging of al-Tikriti and Hashem, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad.

The two men will remain in limbo not knowing whether they are to live or die, says our correspondent.

The trio, who are in the custody of American forces, were supposed to have been hanged by October.

But the executions were delayed after Hashem became a cause celebre among Sunni politicians.

Iraqi Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi has been among prominent Sunnis who insisted Hashem had simply been a career soldier carrying out orders and should be reprieved.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's administration had rowed with the US embassy and demanded all three be handed over to face the gallows.


The sentences have been held up amid a political row over Hashem

Former regime leaders, including Saddam Hussein himself and his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti, have been handed over by the Americans and hanged by the Iraqi government without significant popular or political repercussions.

The regime claimed the Anfal campaign was a necessary counter-insurgency operation during Iraq's bloody eight-year war with neighbouring Iran.

Majid acquired his nickname Chemical Ali during the operation after poison gas was used.

Over the course of the Anfal trial, which opened in August last year, a defiant Majid showed no trace of remorse for ordering the attacks.

He said at one hearing: "I am the one who gave orders to the army to demolish villages and relocate the villagers. I am not apologising. I did not make a mistake."

BBC

[OMEN]

Gaza has been under sustained bombardment for two days
Israeli forces have kept up attacks on the Gaza Strip, where they have killed at least 32 Palestinians, militants and civilians, since Wednesday morning.

Four Palestinian boys were killed in an Israeli attack as they played in a field in northern Gaza on Thursday.

The Israelis say their attacks are a response to the firing of Palestinian rockets into southern Israel.

A BBC correspondent says Gazan drivers are staying at home, worried their vehicles could be hit from the air.

Well into the night, Israeli air strikes could still be heard in Gaza, the BBC's Aleem Maqbool reports.

There are no signs of either the Israeli army or the Palestinian militants backing down, and the people in Israeli border towns and across the Gaza Strip are bracing themselves for more violence, he adds.

Children killed

Palestinian rocket fire killed one man in the Israeli town of Sderot on Wednesday, and has since injured others.


Israelis buried rocket attack victim Roni Yechiah on Thursday

Israeli attacks have killed Palestinian militants but also civilians including a six-month-old baby and the four boys, who doctors say had been playing football.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said his country could not make peace with people who were murdering its citizens.

"The only requirement we have from the Palestinians is stop killing innocent Israelis, stop shooting Qassam rockets at the civilian centres of Israel so that we'll be able to do business together," he said.

But prominent Palestinian activist Hanan Ashrawi said Israel was guilty of double standards.

"If you make security for Israel a precondition while Israel has a free hand to kill and destroy and wreak havoc in Palestinian lives, you will never get anywhere," she said.

"There has to be security for everybody."

BBC