Iraq Watch: November 28, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was again combative at his legal hearings Monday, in the re-start of his monumental trial. Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, following Monday's session, once again decided to adjourn the trial until December 5 in order for the defense to find proper replacements for two slain attorneys.
Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants, most notably former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court Awad Hamed al-Bandar, are on trial for the alleged killings of over 140 Shiites in Dujail following an assassination attempt against the dictator in 1982.
Hussein badgered the chief judge with complaints regarding everything from having his pen and legal papers being taken away to being forced to walk up four flights of stairs due to a broken elevator.
When Chief Judge Amin, a Kurd, said he would ask the authorities not to force the embattled former leader to wear handcuffs and shackles - another one of Hussein's grievances - Saddam quipped back, "You are the chief judge. I don't want you to tell them. I want you to order them." Saddam also took shots at the foreign presence inside Iraq referring to them only as "invaders and occupiers."
Meanwhile, insurgents ambushed a bus ferrying British Muslims to Shiite shrines located in southern Iraq on Monday killing two and wounding three others. The attack took place in the violence-plagued Dora neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad.
Security forces continued to search for four foreign charity workers who were abducted over the weekend from the west Baghdad residences. The four, who worked for the staunchly anti-war group 'Christian Peacemakers', included two Canadians, an American, and a Briton. Authorities stated that no militant organization has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
In a separate incident, German authorities announced Monday that a German woman was kidnapped in Iraq last Friday. A still image emerged late Monday purportedly showing the abducted German woman along with her Iraqi driver kneeling before three masked militants.
Elsewhere, in further violence, two Sunni politicians were assassinated in separate incidents. Ayad al-Izzi, of the Iraqi Islamic Party, was killed along with two of his bodyguards as they were making there way to the capital from the Fallujah area. The Iraqi Islamic Party, or IIC, is the largest Sunni political bloc in Iraq. In southern Baghdad, meanwhile, Ghalib al-Sideri, a senior public-relations director for the Council for National Dialogue, was gunned down.
Four U.S. soldiers were wounded in a suicide car bombing in Baqouba while three more U.S. soldiers were hurt in a roadside bombing in Baghdad. Also, in the northern city of Kirkuk, an Iraqi soldier was killed and another injured in an insurgent shooting.
Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants, most notably former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court Awad Hamed al-Bandar, are on trial for the alleged killings of over 140 Shiites in Dujail following an assassination attempt against the dictator in 1982.
Hussein badgered the chief judge with complaints regarding everything from having his pen and legal papers being taken away to being forced to walk up four flights of stairs due to a broken elevator.
When Chief Judge Amin, a Kurd, said he would ask the authorities not to force the embattled former leader to wear handcuffs and shackles - another one of Hussein's grievances - Saddam quipped back, "You are the chief judge. I don't want you to tell them. I want you to order them." Saddam also took shots at the foreign presence inside Iraq referring to them only as "invaders and occupiers."
Meanwhile, insurgents ambushed a bus ferrying British Muslims to Shiite shrines located in southern Iraq on Monday killing two and wounding three others. The attack took place in the violence-plagued Dora neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad.
Security forces continued to search for four foreign charity workers who were abducted over the weekend from the west Baghdad residences. The four, who worked for the staunchly anti-war group 'Christian Peacemakers', included two Canadians, an American, and a Briton. Authorities stated that no militant organization has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
In a separate incident, German authorities announced Monday that a German woman was kidnapped in Iraq last Friday. A still image emerged late Monday purportedly showing the abducted German woman along with her Iraqi driver kneeling before three masked militants.
Elsewhere, in further violence, two Sunni politicians were assassinated in separate incidents. Ayad al-Izzi, of the Iraqi Islamic Party, was killed along with two of his bodyguards as they were making there way to the capital from the Fallujah area. The Iraqi Islamic Party, or IIC, is the largest Sunni political bloc in Iraq. In southern Baghdad, meanwhile, Ghalib al-Sideri, a senior public-relations director for the Council for National Dialogue, was gunned down.
Four U.S. soldiers were wounded in a suicide car bombing in Baqouba while three more U.S. soldiers were hurt in a roadside bombing in Baghdad. Also, in the northern city of Kirkuk, an Iraqi soldier was killed and another injured in an insurgent shooting.
posted by Todd @ 6:51 PM
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