Saddam Hussein's morale has plummeted due to the gravity of the war crimes charges he faces, according to the judge trying him, while US and Iraqi forces arrested an Iraqi regarded as a top terror leader in northern Iraq.
Meanwhile, four Iraqi soldiers were killed by bombs yesterday, police said, while in the north of the country the Kurdish parliament opened its first session since its election on Jan. 30.
In Balad, 90km north of Baghdad, a car bomb explosion killed three Iraqi soldiers guarding a checkpoint yesterday. The police said the explosion also injured two other soldiers and one civilian bystander.
Elsewhere a roadside bomb killed a passing Iraqi soldier and wounded two others in the center of the restive city of Fallujah Saturday, police said. The bomb went off when the three soldiers were passing in military vehicles in downtown Fallujah.
On the main road between Fallujah and Habbaniya, witnesses reported the explosion of a roadside bomb while a U.S. military patrol was passing by near Falahat village. The witnesses said there were casualties among the troops but there was no immediate confirmation by the US military.
The chief investigating judge, Raid Juhi, who is the head of the Iraqi Special Tribunal set up to try Saddam, told the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in an interview that the ousted president and some of the 11 other detained former regime figures are facing "12 cases" carrying punishments from life in jail to the death penalty.
"The ousted president has suffered a collapse in his morale because he understands the extent of the charges against him and because he's certain that he will stand tribal before an impartial court," Juhi was quoted as saying.
Saddam, who is being held in a US-run detention facility in Baghdad, was captured in December 2003 and faces charges including killing rival politicians during his 30-year rule, gassing Kurds, invading Kuwait and suppressing Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in 1991.
No date has been set for the start of Saddam's trial, but Juhi reiterated comments made last week by President Jalal Talabani to CNN that the former dictator was expected to face the tribunal within two months. Juhi said Saddam will be tried alone in some case and alongside other detainees in other cases.
In a coup for security forces battling a raging insurgency in northern Iraq, Mullah Mahdi was detained early yesterday along with his brother, three other Iraqis and a non-Iraqi Arab national in eastern Mosul. An Iraqi army Major General said the suspect was captured following a brief clash in eastern Mosul. Mullah Mahdi is suspected of affiliation with the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, one of Iraq's most feared terror groups, and had links to the Syrian intelligence service.
"He was wanted for almost all car bombs, assassinations of high officials, beheadings of Iraqi policemen and soldiers and for launching attacks against multi-national forces," al-Obeidi said.
On Friday, the Association of Muslim Scholars, an influential Sunni group with ties to some insurgents, called for an end to a counterinsurgency in Baghdad, saying it overwhelmingly targets members of their religious minority.
The interior minister has said at least 700 suspected insurgents have been rounded up in the sweep, known as Operation Lightning, which has also killed 28 militants.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS