The cousin of toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein known as "Chemical Ali," who US and British officials earlier said they thought died in a bombing raid on April 5, may still be alive, US defence officials say.
US forces bombed the home of Ali Hassan al-Majid in the southern city of Basra during the war to oust Saddam, and British and American officials expressed confidence at the time that Majid had been killed.
But US Central Command and officials at the Pentagon said on Thursday his status now was considered uncertain.
"People had thought that he was dead, but there was always a question mark. That doesn't mean that he is alive. We're just more confident in saying, 'I don't know,'" said a defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Majid is listed as No. 5 on Central Command's list of top-55 wanted Iraqis from Saddam's government, and is designated as the "king of spades" in the deck of cards given U.S. soldiers to familiarise them with Iraqi fugitives.
Majid earned his moniker for ordering a chemical weapon attack against 5,000 Kurds in the Iraqi village of Halabja in 1988 to end decades of insurrection. At the time, Iraq was a US ally.
Major Brad Lowell, a Central Command spokesman, said "there is no disposition next to his name" on Central Command's list.
"Therefore, he's at large," Lowell said.
Lowell said he was unaware of any recent intelligence information that led to a reassessment of Majid's status.
"Chemical Ali," if caught, potentially could provide information about Iraqi weapons programmes, he added.
"Anyone on that top-55 list is important to us," Lowell said.
"He has that nickname or that tag for a reason. He happens to have a background in chemical weapons."
The U.S. military said at the time of the bombing that two aircraft had struck Majid's home in Basra with laser-guided munitions. U.S. military briefers displayed for reporters satellite images of the site before and after the strike.
"He may not have been there," the defence official said on Thursday.
Majid played a leading role in Iraq's seven-month occupation of Kuwait from 1990-91 and in the violent suppression of Kurdish and Shiite Muslim uprisings that followed the 1991 Gulf War. The activist group Human Rights Watch called him "Saddam Hussein's hatchet man."