Ali Hassan al-Majid is thought to have been born in 1941 in al-Awja near Tikrit, though he claimed in court that he was born three years later in 1944. The US, the United Nations and the Bank of England have also listed an alternative birth year of 1943. 1939 and 1940 have also emerged as possible birth years. who came from a poor family and had very little formal education. He worked as a motorcycle messenger and driver in the Iraqi Army from 1959 until the Ba'ath Party seized power in 1968. Thereafter he was able to gain entry into the Military Academy and was commissioned as an officer in the Infantry.