ʿAlī Ḥasan al-Majīd

ʿAlī Ḥasan al-Majīd (born c. 1941, Tikrīt, Iraq—died Jan. 25, 2010, Baghdad) was an Iraqi Baʿth Party official and a cousin of Iraqi Pres. Ṣaddām Ḥussein. During his career he became known for brutal attacks on Iraqi citizens, especially Kurds and Shīʿites. In 1958 al-Majīd joined the Baʿth Party. With Ṣaddām’s rise to power in the government of Pres. Aḥmad Ḥasan al-Bakr—after the Baʿth Party, which had been unseated in 1963, returned to power in...