BAGHDAD, June 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraq's Special Tribunal, charged with trying ousted leader Saddam Hussein and his top aides said on Sunday it has interrogated six of Saddam's top aides over alleged crimes against Kurds and Shiites.

    On June 20, the court interrogated two of Saddam's half brothers, Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan and Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan, over alleged crimes of deportation of the Faili Kurds, who are Shiite Muslims, a court statement said.

    According to the statement, the commander of the former paramilitary Quds Army, Iyad Futaih Khalifa, was also questioned by the court along with two other former Baath party senior leaders, Mohammed Zumam Abdul-Razaq and Latif Nasif Jasim.

    They were interrogated individually over "ethnic cleansing operations in Kirkuk," the statement said.

    Khalifa and Mohsen Khodr Abbas, another senior Baath leader, were interrogated about the "events of 1991," said the statement, referring to Saddam's brutal suppression of the Shiite uprising immediately after the first Gulf war. Enditem