ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – An infamous security officer in the Nugra Salman prison under the former Baath regime, Ajaj Ahmed Hardan, also known as “Hajaj Nugra Salman” for the brutality with which he ruled the prison, was arrested by the Iraqi National Security Service (INSS), the agency announced on Friday.

“National Security Service detachments in Muthanna province, in coordination with the Southern Saladdin Security Directorate, were able to arrest one of the most wanted henchmen of the former regime, the fugitive Ajaj Ahmed Hardan, nicknamed ‘Hajjaj Nugra Salman,’ who served as the security officer of the infamous Nugra al-Salman prison,” the INSS wrote in a statement.

The arrest happened after six months of “meticulous intelligence investigation” by the service, the statement adds, noting that the notorious warden had previously held other security positions, and was implicated in “the executions and burials of victims in mass graves,” as well as “a series of crimes against humanity against hundreds of Iraqi citizens, particularly those of Kurdish descent who were forcibly exiled to Muthanna province,” including “torture, murder, and rape” inside the infamous prison.

Earlier on Friday, Iraqi security expert Fadhil Abu Raghif said in a Facebook post that “Saddam's personal butcher is in the National Security drawers. The National Security Service has arrested…. Saddam's sharp tool, security officer Ajaj Ahmed Hardan al-Nasiri."

“The Anfal butcher… subjected his prisoners to the bitterest torture. Decades of killing and torture were his trademark,” said Abu Raghif.

The INSS said that Hajaj’s family had faked his death to evade security services. “However, intelligence efforts, information analysis, and cross-reference with previous confessions” led to the uncovering of his location, whereby security forces were able to triangulate his hiding place in Saladdin province.

The announcement of the arrest coincided with the 42nd anniversary of the Barzani Genocide—carried out at the hands of the Baath regime under leader Saddam Hussein—on Thursday, an episode in which government forces abducted an estimated 8,000 members of the Barzani tribe from their homes in the Zagros mountains before executing them in the deserts of southern Iraq and burying them in mass graves.

The massacre was part of the Baath regime’s wider genocidal campaign against the Kurdish population called Anfal, during which over 182,000 Kurds were killed and thousands of Kurdish villages were wiped out and destroyed.

Several Kurdish leaders, including Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) President and former Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, and Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, commemorated the 42nd anniversary of the massacre, stressing the necessity of confronting attempts to revive “chauvinistic” ideologies in Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani on Friday marked the 42nd anniversary of the Barzani Genocide, calling the forced disappearance of 8,000 members of the tribe "a criminal and inhumane act that starkly reflected the brutality of the dictatorial regime.”

"On this solemn occasion, we extend our deepest solidarity and condolences to our Barzani brothers, foremost among them Mr. Masoud Barzani, for the pure blood that was shed," Sudani wrote on X.

During the brutal Anfal campaign in 1988, which sought to suppress Kurdish resistance against the Baathist regime and saw myriad punitive atrocities perpetrated by Hussein's forces against civilian Kurds, thousands of Kurdish men were transported to the Nugra Salman prison, where Hajaj had ruled. The prison held between 6,000 and 8,000 people, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report.