Ali Hassan al-Majid, a former Iraqi official better known as "Chemical Ali," was executed by hanging in Iraq shortly after midday on Monday, Saudi daily Al-Riaydh reported.

Majid, who was captured in August 2003, several months after U.S. troops invaded Iraq, was sentenced to death for ordering a poison gas attack on a Kurdish village.

The cousin of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Majid ordered the use of chemical weapons against residents of the Halabja village in Kurdistan in 1988, resulting in the deaths of 5,000 people, including women and children.

Following the massacre, Kurds in northern Iraq began to refer to Majid as "Chemical Ali." The nickname soon gained worldwide notoriety.

Majid was also given death sentences for atrocities during Hussein's regime, including a 1988 military campaign against ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq, the suppression of Shia revolt after the 1991 Gulf War and the killings of Shia Muslims in the Sadr City district of Baghdad in 1999.

MOSCOW, January 25 (RIA Novosti)