Iraq Watch: November 27, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - As final preparations for the re-start of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants' trial - scheduled to begin Monday - were underway, violence continued elsewhere in the war-torn nation.

Controversial former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark arrived in Baghdad on Sunday to serve as an advisor Hussein's defense team. Clark, who was appointed Attorney General by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967 and served under him until his term ended in 1969, has garnered fame for representing high-profile figures - most recently deposed Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosevic.

Four foreign aid workers, including two Canadians, an American, and a Britain, were reported kidnapped Sunday. No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the abduction. According to Reuters, the four were taken from a western Baghdad neighborhood yesterday.

Meanwhile, Iraqi police announced Sunday that they have foiled a possible assassination attempt against Raed Juhi, the chief investigative judge in the landmark Saddam Hussein case. Eight men were apprehended in the northern, oil-rich city of Kirkuk four days ago according to police sources. The group of men reportedly possessed bomb making materials and written instructions from Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former high-ranking official during the Hussein regime.

In violence Sunday, a workday for most Iraqis, a car bomb killed two civilians and injured two more in western Baghdad. Another Iraqi civilian died in a roadside bombing near Baquoba, north of the capital. In Mosul, a roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol killed at least one policeman and wounded another.

The beheaded body of a former Iraqi army cook was discovered Sunday near Hawija, southwest of Kirkuk and an official of the major crimes unit was gunned down by unknown militants in Kerbala.

Also Sunday, the U.S. military announced that a U.S. Marine was killed yesterday in an IED attack near the former rebel-stronghold of Fallujah.