WASHINGTON, 2 April 2003 — Gassing the Kurds in 1988 was only one highlight in the military career of Iraqi Gen. Ali Hasan Al-Majid. But it was the one that provided him with a catchy nickname — “Chemical Ali’’ — and the only one on which his views are known.

“I will kill them all with chemical weapons!’’ the Iraqi general said on an audio tape of a meeting of top officials later smuggled out. “Who is going to say anything? The international community?... them! The international community and those who listen to them! I will not attack them with chemicals just one day, but I will continue to attack them with chemicals for 15 days.’’

In that campaign, an estimated 100,000 Kurds were killed. And it was only the start of a career that has earned Al-Majid — now the commander of southern Iraqi forces that have used a mixture of paramilitary guerrilla tactics and terror-type attacks to harass and slow US and British forces — a reputation as one of President Saddam Hussein’s most brutal enforcers, and a spot on the US most-wanted list. Human rights groups say his resume also includes a term as the first governor after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, responsible for a nightmarish occupation; the ruthless suppression of a revolt by Shiites in southern Iraq in 1991; and a possible role in the murder of two of Saddam’s sons-in-law when they returned to Iraq after defecting to Jordan.

Monday, however, the hunter was being hunted. Al-Majid was a key target of US forces that scoured Shatra, a town just north of Al-Nassiriyah, the scene of tough fighting around a key US bridgehead over the Euphrates River. US officers told reporters that Shatra had been used as a headquarters for senior Iraqi commanders, but initial reports indicated he was not caught in a door-to-door hunt that included the local Baath Party headquarters.

Based on his past, Al-Majid was a logical choice to keep restive populations in the south in line and organize fierce southern resistance to the US-led invasion. A cousin of Saddam, he had served as an Iraqi Army driver and motorcycle messenger at the time Saddam’s Baath Party took power in 1968 and achieved prominence after Saddam became president in 1979. Al-Majid became the party chief in northern Iraq in 1987. Chemical attacks on Halabjah and other villages was the tactic of choice for quashing the Kurdish rebellion, but it was just one piece in a strategy of indiscriminate killing.

“Corps commanders shall carry out sporadic bombardments using artillery, helicopters and aircraft at all times of the day or night in order to kill the largest number of persons,’’ read an order signed by Al-Majid that was obtained and smuggled out by Kurdish rebels. “Troops can open fire at will without any restrictions. Those between the ages of 15 and 70 shall be executed after any useful information has been obtained.’’

After Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Al-Majid was governor of the annexed territory for five months — a period marked by widespread reports of abductions, rape and torture of Kuwaitis. Then, after the rout of Iraqi forces in the Gulf War, Al-Majid’s approach to quashing a Shiite rebellion in the south was marked by the same tactics — “executions, arbitrary arrests, disappearances, torture and other atrocities,’’ according to Human Rights Watch.

According to chilling witness accounts published on the website of Indict, a US-funded private group based in London that has worked to compile war-crimes cases against human-rights abusers in Iraq, Al-Majid has never shied away from personal involvement in the ruthless tactics he oversees. In the fall, Al-Majid took on a new role as a personal envoy for Saddam, visiting countries such as Libya and Syria to try to solidify diplomatic support for the regime. The trip triggered rumors that he was passing out cash to secure a safe harbor for Saddam — or himself — if things went sour in the threatened US military campaign. He ridiculed the idea of exile.

“These reports cannot be believed even by infants,’’ he said. At the time, human-rights groups called unsuccessfully on the host countries to arrest him as a war criminal. “Al-Majid is Saddam’s hatchet man,’’ said Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth. “He should be received by prison guards, not heads of state.’’