Special
report: Trial of Saddam
Hussein
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Saddam Hussein listens to a witness
testimony during his trial in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone Oct.
9, 2006. Saddam's forces buried a Kurdish family alive in a mass grave
during a military operation against ethnic Kurds in the 1980s, a witness
told the genocide trial of the ousted Iraqi leader on Monday. (Xinhua/AFP
Photo) Photo Gallery
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BAGHDAD, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- The
genocide trial of Iraqi toppled president Saddam Hussein resumed Monday without
a defense team, amid the assassination of the brother of Iraqi Vice
President, mass policemen poisoning, kidnappings of Iraqi soldiers and a car
bombing ripping through a popular market.
SADDAM TRIAL
Saddam and other codefendants were all present at the
courtroom in Baghdad on Monday, while the defense team announced they would
continue to boycott the trial.
Since judge Abdullah al-Amiri was replaced by
Muhammed Ureybi for allegedly being biased toward the defendants, the defense
lawyers have been boycotting, and the defendants were represented only by
court-appointed lawyers.
During the session, four witnesses took the stand to
tell the court harrowing stories from their Kurdish villages and their
conditions at prison detentions.
A female witness who talked from behind a curtain
told the court that the Iraqi forces attacked her village in the northern
Kurdish region in April 1988, when she was 13 years old, and what happened to
her family after they were detained.
She told the court that she saw an officer named only
Hajaj torturing the women.
"I saw Hajaj tying two girls to the wall under a
burning sun during a summer day," she said, adding "I know what happened to my
family. They were buried alive."
The woman demanded the court to ask Saddam "why you
did that to our women and children?"
Saddam and his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as
"Chemical Ali," as well as five former commanders face charges of genocide for
their role in Anfal, which the chief prosecutor said left 182, 000 people dead
or missing.
ASSASSINATION, BOMBING AND
KIDNAPPING
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Soldiers carry the coffin of Amer
al-Hashemi, the brother of Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi,
during a funeral in Baghdad, Oct. 9, 2006. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)
Photo Gallery
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Earlier Monday, gunmen wearing police commando
uniforms broke into the house of the brother of Iraqi Vice President Tariq
al-Hashimi, killing him and kidnapping his guards.
"Gen. Amir al-Hashimi, brother of Vice President
Tariq al-Hashimi and an advisor of the Defense Ministry, was shot dead by
unknown gunmen wearing police commando uniforms who raided his house early
Monday," an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.
The attackers also killed Amir al-Hashimi's bodyguard
and kidnapped his guards, the source said on condition of anonymity.
Al-Hashimi is one of the most senior Sunni Arabs in
the Shiite-led national unity government. Amir al-Hashimi was the third of the
VP siblings killed since April. Gunmen also killed his sister and another
brother in two separate attacks in Baghdad.
In Baghdad's eastern slum of Sadr City, gunmen
attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint, kidnapping 11 soldiers.
"Unknown gunmen in a minibus stormed the checkpoint
of Hamza Square in Sadr City district and seized all the soldiers, apparently
without shooting at any of them," an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.
The attackers were not immediately identified,
according to the source, who said that the area where the incident took place
was under the control of the Mehdi militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr.
The incident came a day after U.S. and Iraqi forces
killed 20 militants in clashes with the Mehdi army in the Shiite City of
Diwaniyah, some 130 km south of Baghdad.
Violence continued at dust on Monday. A car bomb
ripped through a popular market in northeast Baghdad, killing at least 13 people
and wounding 49 others.
The explosive-laden car parked on the side of the
street in Shalal market in Shaab district went off at about 6:30 p.m. (1530
GMT), while shopkeepers were closing to break their day-long Ramadan fast, a
police source told Xinhua.
The blast also caused several cars on fire and many
shops damaged, the source added.
MASS FOOD POISONING
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A policeman grimaces while being sent to
a hospital in Numaniya, south of Baghdad, Oct. 9, 2006. (Reuters
Photo) Photo Gallery
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Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki ordered an investigation on Monday into mass food poisoning that left
hundreds of policemen ill on Sunday at a military training base in Numaniyah,
some 120 km southeast of Baghdad.
A medical source in Numaniyah hospital told Xinhua
that three police recruits died and more than 1,200 recruits felt sick after
eating suspicious meals Sunday evening.
"The men started to feel sick after they ate meals
breaking their daylight fast on Sunday at the Numaniyah military training base,
some 120 km southeast of Baghdad," the source said on condition of anonymity.
"The victims were evacuated to Numaniyah and Kut
hospitals by ambulances, military and civilian cars," the source added.
The source said it remained unknown whether the
victims were poisoned deliberately. Enditem
Related:
Car bomb kills 13, wounds
46 in Baghdad market: police source
Baghdad, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- At least 13 people were
killed and 46 others wounded when a car bomb ripped through a popular market in
northeast Baghdad on Monday, a well-informed police source told Xinhua.
The explosive-laden car parked on the side of the
street in Shalal market in Shaab district went off at about 6:30 p.m. (1530
GMT), while shopkeepers were closing to break their day-long Ramadan fast, the
source said on condition of anonymity.
The blast also caused several cars in fire and many
shops damaged, the source added.
The almost daily gruesome violence in Baghdad and
other Iraqi cities were seen as a major setback for the Iraqi government's
efforts to stem violence and achieve national reconciliation.
UN and Iraqi officials estimate that more than 100 Iraqis are killed everyday in insurgent attacks and fightings between Sunni and Shiite factions. Enditem
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