Iraq Watch: December 5, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein was outspoken and combative in the third day of legal proceedings against him and seven co-defendants stemming from the alleged 1982 massacre of over 140 Shiites in the small town of Dujail, north of Baghdad, after an assassination attempt against the deposed Sunni leader.
During the course of Monday's chaotic session Saddam threatened the trials' Kurdish chief judge, defense layers for the accused staged a walkout forcing a 90 minute court recess, and Saddam's half-brother - and fellow defendant - Barazan Ibrahim engaged in a verbal sparring match with a testifying witness.
In violence Monday, five Iraqi soldiers were killed when their patrol was ambushed by armed insurgents in Baghdad. North of the capital, in Baquoba, Ammar Kamil Ashur, a local official for the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) was gunned down by militants.
In yet another kidnapping of a westerner, French engineer Bernard Planche - an employee of AACCESS NGO - was abducted by militants near his home in Baghdad's up-scale Mansour district.
Plance joins four anti-war Christian peace activists (two Canadians, an American, and a Briton) and a German archeologist who have been kidnapped in Iraq within the last 10 days.
In a related development, the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) issued a joint-release, signed by Muslim leaders from around the world, appealing for the release of the four aforementioned Christian peace activists currently being held by a group calling itself the 'Swords of the Righteousness Brigade'. The statement lashed out at the abductors stating that, "Such peace activists should have been welcomed into Iraq and treated as honorable guests instead of being kidnapped and used as bargaining chips."
Meanwhile, a Task Force Baghdad soldier was killed by an IED yesterday in the eastern part of the capital the U.S. military announced on Monday.
Also Monday, the U.S. military announced that former Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Hamza al-Zubaydi has died of heart failure at the age of 67. Al-Zubaydi, a Shiite, passed away Friday at a U.S. military hospital in Baghdad. He was number nine on the infamous list of Iraq's 55 most wanted and was captured on April 20, 2003 near Hillah.
During the course of Monday's chaotic session Saddam threatened the trials' Kurdish chief judge, defense layers for the accused staged a walkout forcing a 90 minute court recess, and Saddam's half-brother - and fellow defendant - Barazan Ibrahim engaged in a verbal sparring match with a testifying witness.
In violence Monday, five Iraqi soldiers were killed when their patrol was ambushed by armed insurgents in Baghdad. North of the capital, in Baquoba, Ammar Kamil Ashur, a local official for the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) was gunned down by militants.
In yet another kidnapping of a westerner, French engineer Bernard Planche - an employee of AACCESS NGO - was abducted by militants near his home in Baghdad's up-scale Mansour district.
Plance joins four anti-war Christian peace activists (two Canadians, an American, and a Briton) and a German archeologist who have been kidnapped in Iraq within the last 10 days.
In a related development, the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) issued a joint-release, signed by Muslim leaders from around the world, appealing for the release of the four aforementioned Christian peace activists currently being held by a group calling itself the 'Swords of the Righteousness Brigade'. The statement lashed out at the abductors stating that, "Such peace activists should have been welcomed into Iraq and treated as honorable guests instead of being kidnapped and used as bargaining chips."
Meanwhile, a Task Force Baghdad soldier was killed by an IED yesterday in the eastern part of the capital the U.S. military announced on Monday.
Also Monday, the U.S. military announced that former Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Hamza al-Zubaydi has died of heart failure at the age of 67. Al-Zubaydi, a Shiite, passed away Friday at a U.S. military hospital in Baghdad. He was number nine on the infamous list of Iraq's 55 most wanted and was captured on April 20, 2003 near Hillah.
posted by Todd @ 3:06 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home