The trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on charges including genocide for a brutal campaign against Kurds in the 1980s, which left 100 000 people dead, was set down on Tuesday for August 21. The court had announced in April that Saddam and six co-defendants, including Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as Chemical Ali, would face genocide charges.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will offer an amnesty to some rebel groups and call for the disarmament of militias as part of a 28-point national reconciliation plan to stem violence, a lawmaker said on Saturday. The plan, first mentioned by al-Maliki on June 6, was inspired by post-apartheid South Africa.
A senior official at Iraq’s Defence Ministry has been shot dead in Baghdad, officials said on Monday, in the latest attack against the new administration three weeks after the transfer of sovereignty. The ambush occurred in the southern Saydia neighbourhood where a truck bomb exploded on Monday morning.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=118946">Nine dead in car bomb attack</a>