They believe it was part of the intelligence headquarters of Ali Hassan al-Majid, who ordered the gassing of thousands of Kurds in 1988.
The two men directly responsible - Saddam Hussein and his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid - known as "Chemical Ali" - were hanged in 2006 and 2010.
The area was governed by Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, the infamous so-called "Chemical Ali, " who is believed to have orchestrated the gassing of the Kurds in Halbaja in 1988.
On Saturday, the British called in an airstrike on the home, in Basra, of Ali Hassan al-Majid, whom Mr. Hussein put in charge of the southern part of the country.
Ali Hassan al-Majid, to give his proper name, is Saddam Hussein's cousin, and he ordered the use of poison gas to kill as many as 180, 000 Kurdish men, women, and children.
But there is hardly any sympathy among Iraqis for Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, who earned the nickname "Chemical Ali" for the enthusiasm he exhibited in ordering mustard and sarin gas attacks that killed thousands of Kurdish civilians in 1988.
There is a large body of evidence to suggest that he was involved in the murder of the popular, moderate Grand Ayatollah Abd al-Majid al-Khoi, who did not subscribe to the violent version of Shia Islam espoused by the late Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran.
Al-Imam's leader is Sheikh Abdel Majid al-Zindani, a provocative cleric with a flaming red beard.
Al-Nori is one of several al-Sadr supporters accused in last year's killing of Ayatollah Abdul Majid al-Khoei in Najaf.
His followers are widely blamed for the murder of a coalition-friendly cleric, Abdel Majid al-Khouei, in Najaf in April, soon after his return from exile.
On Thursday, Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a prominent Shia leader, was stabbed to death in a mosque in Najaf.
Others who may play a significant role include the cleric Abdul Majid al-Zindani, who heads the Salafist (very conservative) wing of the Islah party.
The fighters are loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite Muslim cleric who is wanted in last year's killing of a rival, Ayatollah Abdul Majid al-Khoei.
CNN: Coalition estimates 50 killed in Iraqi cleric's militia
When asked why he released three men suspected of killing Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a London-based cleric stabbed to death on the steps of Najaf's Imam Ali shrine, he says he handed them over to the requisite authority, declining to say what that is.
"It's a moral and humanitarian obligation, from those very same new modern, traditional and value-based principles that you are trying to instill in our wounded country, " al Majid wrote.
Ezzedine Al Majid says Uday and Qusay killed his wife and four children, as well as his cousins -- who were married to Saddam's two daughters.
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