A day after a mass kidnap from a Baghdad ministry raised fears Iraq’s sectarian militias are out of control, government leaders gave sharply differing accounts on Wednesday of whether dozens of hostages were still missing. The minister whose staff were targeted said up to 80 were still unaccounted for, possibly held by Shi’ite militia.

Iraq began on Monday to lift a curfew imposed to quell any insurgent backlash against the death sentence passed on Saddam Hussein, amid a wave of jubilation among his former victims and fury among diehard supporters. Italy and France urged Iraq not to execute Saddam and Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain opposed the death penalty.

Saddam Hussein lasted two hours in court on Monday before the judge threw him out of his genocide trial for the second time in as many sessions, as the former Iraqi president’s lawyers boycotted proceedings. Eight court-appointed lawyers stood in for the defence team, which stayed away in protest at the sacking last week by the Iraqi government of the previous chief judge.