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.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
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