Trials of Saddam aides planned as fighting swells in Iraq
Pakistan Times Monitoring Report

BAGHDAD (Iraq): Ali Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein nicknamed "Chemical Ali" for the gassing of the Kurds, will be the first member of Iraq's ousted leadership to go on trial, a minister announced Wednesday.

"The trials will take place from next week until mid-January, and the first to be tried will be Chemical Ali," said Defence Minister Hazem Shaalan, quoted by his spokesman.

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said Tuesday that the "symbols" of Saddam's regime would go on trial from next week. They will "appear in succession to ensure that justice is done in Iraq", he said.

Perspective

Saddam, seized by US forces along with 11 of his top Baathist lieutenants, is being held at Camp Cropper, a US base near Baghdad airport. All 12 appeared in court in July to hear preliminary charges.

Sixty-year-old Majid, captured on August-21 last year, is accused of having ordered the 1988 gassing of the Kurds in the town of Halabja that killed some 5,000 people, 75 percent of them women and children.

He also played a key role in the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and stands accused of the violent repression of a Shiite Muslim uprising after Iraq's ouster from the emirate in the 1991 Gulf War.

"Hatchet Man"

Hailing like Saddam from Tikrit, north of the capital, Majid was considered the "hatchet man" of the toppled President whose services were regularly called upon to break the back of any challenge to the regime.

On the eve of last year's invasion, Majid was appointed governor of southern Iraq to organise the defence of the region and to ensure the mass uprising encouraged by the US-led coalition did not materialize.

Ali had been sent to the south before, in March 1991, to put down the Shiite uprising. During the occupation of Kuwait, Majid had been named governor of the emirate and quickly wiped out pockets of resistance.

He later resumed his normal job as Iraq's minister for local affairs and member of the decision-making Revolutionary Command Council.

But Majid was most known for his role in northern Iraq. In March 1987, the ruling Baath party put him in charge of state agencies in the Kurdish area, including the police, army and militias.

Shortly before the March 2003 invasion, Ali had been raising his public profile. In January he made his first trip abroad since 1988, visiting Syria and Lebanon to lobby support.

Majid was initially thought to have been killed by a British air strike on his Villa in the southern city of Basra in April 2003. He was listed as number five on a US list of 55 most wanted Iraqi officials.

IRC refuses to meet with Saddam's lawyer

A story from Geneva says that the International Red Cross said Wednesday it had canceled a meeting with a French lawyer who wanted the agency to check whether former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was on hunger strike.

Florian Westphal, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said lawyer Emmanuel Ludot would not be coming to the ICRC headquarters in Geneva on Wednesday as announced.

"We canceled the meeting because we didn't think it was really very useful," said Westphal. "There are no plans for another meeting at the moment."

Update on Iraqi Situation

Meanwhile, yet another seven people were killed and 32 wounded when a powerful bomb exploded on Wednesday near a shrine in the Iraqi holy city of Karbala. The blast occurred near the Mausoleum of Hazrat Imam Hussein [RA].

Among the wounded was believed to be Sheikh Abdel Mehdi Karbalai, the local representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, spiritual head of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority, police said.

Four Policemen Killed in Basmaya

Four Iraqi policemen were killed and another 13 are missing after an attack on their convoy in Basmaya, police said on Wednesday. Twenty policemen were also injured in the attack.

A 10-vehicle police convoy with 85 recruits on board was traveling from the southern city of Basra to take over from a police unit in Baghdad when it came under attack close to an area known as the "triangle of death," a police source said.

"When the convoy arrived in Basmaya, about 15 kilometres (nine miles) south of Baghdad, it came under attack by unknown gunmen using an assortment of weapons," the source said.

Attempt to take Mosul police posts

And in Mosul, gunmen attempted to overrun two police stations in the northern city but were repelled by Iraqi police and National Guards, the US military said on Wednesday.

In Tuesday's assault, men with rifles and pistols attacked two stations, one in the east of the city the other in the west, in what appeared a coordinated effort, the US military said.

"The Iraqi police and soldiers from the Iraqi National Guard successfully repelled the attacks preventing a reoccurrence of the events of Nov. 10 when many police stations were abandoned and later looted," a US statement said.

US Marine shot dead in Baghdad

Unknown gunmen have shot and killed a Marine west of Baghdad, the US military said on Wednesday.

The Marine was killed on Tuesday while carrying out operations in Anbar, a large province west of Baghdad that includes the volatile cities of Falluja and Ramadi.No further details were given.

At least 1,020 U.S. troops have been killed in action in Iraq since the beginning of the war.

Italian taken hostage in Iraq

An Italian national working for a British non-governmental organisation has been taken hostage in Iraq, the Italian news agency ANSA reported quoting Italian intelligence sources.

The news agency identified the hostage as a 52-year-old man from the Campania region near Rome, without providing details of the kidnapping.●