ALI Hassan al-Majid, dubbed "Chemical Ali" by opponents of the Iraqi regime for ordering a poison gas attack that killed thousands of Kurds, has been found dead, a British officer said today.

ALI Hassan al-Majid, dubbed "Chemical Ali" by opponents of the Iraqi regime for ordering a poison gas attack that killed thousands of Kurds, has been found dead, a British officer said today.

Maj Andrew Jackson of the 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment said his superiors had confirmed the death during a briefing earlier in the day.

Group Capt Al Lockwood, a spokesman for the British forces in the Gulf, said the death of "Chemical Ali'' would show the people of southern Iraq "that the regime is finished. It is over, and liberation is here.''

One of the most brutal members of Saddam's inner circle, al-Majid, in his 50s, led a 1988 campaign against rebellious Kurds in northern Iraq in which whole villages were wiped out.

An estimated 100,000 Kurds, mostly civilians, were killed.

He has also been linked to the bloody crackdown on Shiites in southern Iraq following a 1991 uprising after the Gulf War.

He served as governor of Kuwait during Iraq's seven-month occupation of the emirate in 1990-1991.

Al-Majid was apparently killed on Saturday when two coalition aircraft used laser-guided munitions to attack his house in Basra.

British troops yesterday sent an armoured column deep into Basra, and today they followed with light-armoured infantry - 50 to 75 vehicles and 700 troops.

Maj Jackson said the discovery of al-Majid's body was one of the reasons the British decided to move their infantry into the city because with the leadership gone, resistance might fall apart.