Saddam Hussein, weak from a hunger strike, said on Wednesday that he has been forced to attend his trial for crimes against humanity and that he would prefer to be shot than hung if found guilty. The entire defence team boycotted the latest session in the controversial trial which is approaching its conclusion.
A defiant Saddam Hussein, who has been receiving medical care for his hunger strike to protest against his trial for crimes against humanity, said on Wednesday that he was brought to court against his will. The defence team for the former leader and seven co-accused boycotted the latest session in a trial approaching its conclusion.
Iraq’s ousted president Saddam Hussein was admitted to hospital on Sunday suffering from the effects of his hunger-strike, chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Musawi told Agence France-Presse. The detained leader, who stopped eating 16 days ago, is too ill to attend the next session of his trial, scheduled for Monday, Musawi said.
A car bomb killed 36 civilians and wounded 72 in a Shi’ite district of east Baghdad on Sunday, a day after an inaugural meeting to start reconciling Iraq’s rival factions produced little tangible result. The bomb, near a police station and open-air market, was in the Sadr City neighbourhood, a poor area that is a stronghold of Shi’ite militias.
Iraqi authorities extended a daytime curfew on Baghdad on Friday in an apparent effort to prevent violence after one of the bloodiest weeks this year. State television announced a four-hour traffic ban in force every Friday of late to curb car bomb attacks on mosques during weekly prayers would be extended through most of the day.
At least 24 Iraqis were killed and 37 injured in separate insurgent attacks in and around the capital Baghdad on Wednesday. Seven of the victims died and 13 were injured in simultaneous bomb blasts close to the city-centre Technical University, where an explosives-laden car detonated at the same time as two roadside bombs.
Gunmen seized the chairman of Iraq’s Olympic committee and at least 30 other people on Saturday in a brazen daylight raid on a sports conference in the heart of the city as armed clashes erupted in scattered parts of the capital. Parliament extended the national state of emergency as at least 27 people — including two American soldiers — were killed in sectarian or insurgency-related violence.
Saddam Hussein and three of his co-defendants have been on hunger strike for five days in protest at court procedures and the killing of their defence lawyers, the United States military said on Wednesday. A spokesperson, who declined to identify the other three, said all four had refused meals since Friday evening but were in good health. Saddam’s lawyer said the protest had lasted for seven days and he was concerned about the former president’s health.
Gunmen stormed a bus station north-east of Baghdad on Wednesday and seized 24 people, killing all but four of them, authorities said. An Iraqi general said the victims were Shi’ites, but police said their identities were unclear. The gunmen arrived in several cars at the bus station in Muqdadiyah at about 6am.
The last phase of the turbulent trial of Saddam Hussein on charges of crimes against humanity resumed on Monday with a boycott by the deposed Iraqi leader and key members of the defence team. The Iraqi high tribunal said it would continue to hear the defence’s closing arguments with or without Saddam or his lawyers.
Bands of masked gunmen went on a rampage on Sunday in a predominantly Sunni Baghdad neighbourhood, killing at least 42 Sunni Arabs in a gruesome sectarian attack despite a massive security crackdown, witnesses said. The apparent response to the attacks was swift, with at least 15 people killed and 35 wounded in two powerful car bombs next to a Shi’ite mosque.
At least 30 people were killed or wounded in running gun battles on Friday between Shi’ite militiamen and United States-Iraqi forces in Baghdad’s sprawling Shi’ite slum district of Sadr City, the US military and security sources said. The US military said the fighting resulted in the capture of a ”high-level insurgent leader” behind attacks on Iraqi and US-led forces.
A car bomb exploded in a market in the northern city of Mosul, Iraq, on Monday, killing at least seven people and wounding 28, officials said. The attack was aimed at a police patrol but missed its target and hit the market instead. At least seven civilians were killed and 28 were wounded, according to police.
On a hot summer’s day, veterans of Iraqi cinema, government officials and their bodyguards join a clutch of diehard fans for a ”special evening” at Baghdad’s main theatre. The event is billed as the ”first Iraqi film festival” since the United States-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, but it is more like a tribute to the good old days.
At least 60 people were killed and scores wounded on Saturday when a car bomb struck the Baghdad Shi’ite district of Sadr City, ripping through a massive security crackdown in the Iraqi capital. A Sunni woman MP was also kidnapped in north Baghdad, a day after al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden vowed the war would go on despite a peace plan launched by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Bombs killed at least 40 people at markets in two Iraqi cities, hours after key lawmakers said seven Sunni Arab insurgent groups offered the government a conditional truce. Meanwhile, a top Iraqi commander said Baghdad’s forces would not be ready to keep the peace for at least a year in Anbar province, the insurgent heartland.
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 daytime gun battle in the capital between Sunni insurgents and Shi’ite militiamen prompted the Iraqi government to tighten the Baghdad curfew on Friday as 22 people died in two bombings. The street fighting on Haifa Street on Baghdad’s west side broke out after militiamen loyal to Shi’ite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army came under attack from Sunni Arab gunmen.
The kidnappers of more than 100 Iraqi government employees freed about half of their hostages on Thursday, releasing all their Sunni captives in a clear sign the seizure had been sectarian in nature. The industry ministry workers were snatched by gunmen on Wednesday after their shift ended at a factory north of Baghdad.
More than 100 employees of Iraq’s Ministry of Industry were kidnapped by gunmen north of Baghdad as they left work on Wednesday in a brazen reminder of the country’s dire security situation. The mass-abduction came on the same day that the executed body of one of deposed leader Saddam Hussein’s lawyers was found in the capital.
The United States military said on Tuesday it had killed the ”right-hand man” of slain al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, describing him as someone who could have succeeded the Jordanian-born militant. Iraqi Mansur Suleiman al-Mashhadani was killed on Friday by US forces, said Major General William Caldwell, spokesperson of US-led coalition forces.
Two explosions struck an Interior Ministry patrol and a market in the Baghdad area on Monday evening, killing at least seven people and wounding 16, police said. The first attack was a car bomb that struck a patrol in western Baghdad, killing four commandos and wounding six, Captain Jamil Hussein said.
In the vast indoor Olympic swimming pool in northern Baghdad, sectarian differences are submerged after a commute which is equally dangerous for all the swimmers. Here, amid the overwhelming smell of chlorine, Hamza Hamid and his disabled swimming team colleagues are preparing for an upcoming competition.
United States President George Bush arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday on a surprise five-hour visit in a bid to boost the new government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in its fight against the raging insurgency. A White House spokesperson confirmed that Bush was in Baghdad. ”I can confirm President Bush is in Iraq,” Ken Lisaius told Agence France-Presse.
Al-Qaeda’s chief in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed in an air strike, United States and Iraqi officials announced on Thursday, hailing a major blow against the network’s bid to destabilise the country. The US military said al-Zarqawi was killed in an air strike on a safe house north of Baghdad where he was holding a meeting with fellow militants.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has announced the killing of the al-Qaeda chief in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Iraqiya state television reported. According to an official, Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi was ”presiding over a meeting of his terrorist group” at the time of the operation.
Eight-year-old Ghada Tahseen stood silently as the doctor helped her slip on rubber overalls filled with plaster. It felt strange and uncomfortable, but she didn’t complain. ”I am really happy that I will have a new leg,” she said after a plaster model of her missing limb had been made. ”Now I can play again with my friends and go back to school.”
The trial of Saddam Hussein and his associates resumed on Monday with all eight defendants present and a resumption of defence-witness testimony. Presiding Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman began the session by announcing that the court would hear testimony from two witnesses for defendant Ali Dayih Ali, a minor Ba’athist official from Dujail.
Skeletons, many wearing clothes and blindfolded, jut out from the desert sands in south-western Iraq where forensics experts have unearthed at least two mass graves of victims from the brutal suppression of a 1991 Shi’ite uprising. The chief investigative judge in Saddam Hussein’s trial said they have documented evidence of more than 100 000 victims of the crackdown against Shi’ites.
A suicide car bomber blew himself up in a crowded market in oil-rich southern Basra on Saturday, killing 28 people and wounding 62. In Baghdad, a Russian diplomat was killed and four diplomatic employees were kidnapped. Meanwhile, Iraq’s prime minister is poised to appoint ministers to run the army and police.
Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman on Wednesday ordered toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, out of the courtroom after a row between the two men. It was the second time that Barzan has been expelled since the October 2005 start of the trial against Saddam and seven former associates on charges of crimes against humanity.
Saddam Hussein’s defence team has accused a prosecution witness of perjury and on Wednesday demanded that the court be halted to allow an investigation into the veracity of all those the prosecution has brought to the stand during the seven-month trial.