Xinhua - English

Special Report: Trial of Saddam Hussein

Sepcial Report: Tension accelerates in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- The first witness testified against former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his six top commanders for their alleged roles in an anti-Kurdish campaign in the late 1980s in a Baghdad court on Tuesday.

The Kurdish witness, Ali Mostafa Hama, a survivor of the Anfal campaign, told the court that he saw eight to 12 planes dropped bombs on his village.

Wearing a traditional Kurdish headdress, he said greenish gas leaked from the bombs and that people began vomiting and became blinded after inhaling the gas.

Hama was the first witness to testify against Saddam and his co-defendants in their trial over the Anfal campaign, which started on Monday.

The ousted leader was in the dock with his six co-accused during the second session of the trial on Tuesday.

Among the defendants is Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid,¡¡popularly known as "Chemical Ali" for allegedly ordering poison gas attacks against Kurds.

The defendants are all charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Saddam and al-Majid also face the graver charge of genocide.

If convicted, Saddam might face death penalty.

At the beginning of Tuesday's session, one of the defendants, former defense minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad, claimed that the Anfal campaign in 1987-1988 only targeted Iranian troops and Kurdish rebels instead of Kurdish civilians.

Ahmad, who was also commander of Task Force Anfal and head of the Iraqi Army 1st Corps, said, "The goal was to fight an organized, armed army ... The goal was not civilians."

Another defendant, former intelligence chief Saber Abdul Azizal-Douri, also said that the Iranian army and Kurdish rebels were fighting together against the Iraqi army during the Iran-Iraq warin the 1980s and that the Anfal offensive was aimed to clear northern Iraq of Iranian troops.

During Monday's session, Saddam and al-Majid refused to enter a plea and Chief Judge Abdullah al-Amiri, a Shiite, then entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of them.

Many Kurdish villages were razed and some 100,000 Kurds were reportedly killed in the campaign code-named Anfal which means "Spoil of War."

It is the second trial Saddam is standing.

The former Iraqi leader and seven others have been on a separate trial for allegedly killing 148 Shiites in the village of Dujail following a failed assassination attempt against Saddam near the village in 1982.

A verdict for the Dujail case is expected in October.

Saddam will also face death penalty by hanging if found guilty in the case. Enditem