Special report: Saddam Hussein's Fate

    BAGHDAD, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and six co-defendants on genocide charges resumed in Baghdad on Tuesday with more Kurdish witnesses expected to testify.

    It is a continuation of Monday's session over al-Anfal case which the prosecution says that about 180,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the 1987-88 crackdown.

    On Monday's session, two Kurdish witnesses, who said they survived firing squads of Saddam Hussein's soldiers, testified in the former leader's genocide trial. One of them said he watched his mother and sisters shot to death.

    Saddam and six other former members of Saddam's regime have pleaded innocent to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their role in the military offensive against the Kurds, known as Operation Anfal.

    On Nov. 5, Saddam and two of his senior aides were sentenced to death on crimes against humanity for Dujail case, in which 148 people were executed in the aftermath of a crackdown on the small Shiite village following a failed assassination attempt against Saddam in 1982.

    Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has already said that Saddam might be hanged before the end of this year.