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Baghdad: The Iraqi government wants to execute three aides of former president Saddam Hussein together, including his cousin "Chemical Ali", Iraqi media reported on Wednesday.
Ali Hassan Al-Majid, also known as Chemical Ali, along with former defence minister Sultan Hashim and former army chief of operations, Hussein Al-Tikriti, were all sentenced to death in June for a genocide campaign against the Kurds in the 1980s.
Al-Majid earned the name Chemical Ali for gassing the Kurds in the brutal crackdown.
The row over the planned executions pits prime minister Nuri Al-Maliki against the presidential council, which has vetoed the executions of Hashim and Al-Tikriti.
Hashim and Al-Tikriti are regarded by many Sunni Arabs as career soldiers who were just following orders.
Sunni vice-president Tarqi Al-Hashimi has launched a campaign to spare Hashim, who along with the two other Saddam-era officials are in US custody.
The US military is refusing to hand the three over to the Iraqi authorities before the legal wrangling is resolved.
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