At least 23 people were killed and 58 wounded on Wednesday in a car-bomb attack in Baghdad’s Jadida area, a mixed Shi’ite-Sunni neighbourhood in the south-east of the Iraqi capital, an interior ministry official said.
The attack occurred on the main road of the neighbourhood, which also houses a market, at about midday local time, the official added.
The attack is the latest in a series of bombings to rock Iraq, especially Baghdad, after 64 peopled died on Tuesday in similar bombings.
On Tuesday, a car bomb went off in the Jadida neighbourhood, leaving many casualties.
Saddam
Meanwhile, the trial of Saddam Hussein and seven aides on charges of crimes against humanity resumed on Wednesday with all the defence lawyers attending the session, except Saddam’s lead lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi.
The accused, all dressed in traditional clothes except Saddam who wore a crisp, black suit, came to the court and sat down quietly, an Agence France-Presse correspondent reported.
Iraqi prosecutors on Tuesday submitted to the court trying Saddam what they said was an execution order signed by the former Iraqi dictator, as his lawyers stormed out of the tribunal.
A few minutes after the new session began, chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Mussawi detailed the documents again but was interrupted by Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam’s half-brother.
”The prosecutor should stop referring to the people killed in Dujail as victims as the case is not proved yet,” Barzan retorted.
Documents were presented linking Saddam to the trial and execution of 148 villagers from Dujail, north of Baghdad, in some of the most significant documentary evidence to have been presented by the prosecution so far.
Saddam’s lead lawyers, al-Dulaimi and Khamis Ubaydi, had walked out of the courtroom at the start of Tuesday’s hearing after the judge rejected their pleas for proceedings to be postponed and for the judge and chief prosecutor to be dismissed for alleged bias against the accused.
Ubaydi, however, was seen in court on Wednesday.
On Tuesday after their walkout, they were immediately replaced by court-appointed lawyers who represented Saddam during an earlier defence-counsel walkout.
Quieter session
Tuesday’s hearing, which was quieter than previous sessions that threatened to descend into chaos owing to noisy interventions by the defendants, lasted two hours before being adjourned.
One of the documents, dated June 16 1984 and allegedly signed by Saddam Hussein, confirmed the death sentences passed by a tribunal two days earlier. The disappearance of the men from Dujail followed a 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam in the village.
Prosecutors also submitted documentary evidence to show Saddam’s office had ordered that the sentences be carried out, along with a letter, dated March 23 1985, confirming the executions had taken place and a doctor was on duty to confirm the deaths.
The prosecutors said the villagers had been sentenced after a show trial in which they did not even appear.
Saddam and others face death by hanging if proved guilty.
Dulaimi said on Monday that the deposed president had ended his fast to protest court proceedings.
The trial has frequently run into trouble, with stormy sessions featuring long outbursts or walkouts by the defendants and their counsel as well as the resignation of the previous chief judge and the killing of two defence lawyers. — AFP
