Iraqi leaders named a tribunal of judges and prosecutors to try Saddam Hussein, placing a longtime opponent of the ousted dictator in the forefront of the case against him and his former Baathist inner circle, a spokesman announced Tuesday.
A senior member of Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress was appointed to head the all-Iraqi tribunal — a potentially controversial choice.
Chalabi, a longtime exile who returned to Iraq and was named to the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, is mistrusted as an outsider by many Iraqis who want to see Saddam prosecuted by Iraqis who were present under his brutal rule.
In other developments:
Members of Congress grilled U.S. military leaders and Bush administration defense officers about the future of the Iraq war. The hearing Tuesday was the first of five scheduled for administration officials on Capitol Hill this week. Iraqi security forces, some wearing flak jackets and carrying weapons, moved back into the besieged city of Fallujah, part of an agreement between U.S. officials and local leaders aimed at ending hostilities. The accord calls on insurgents to hand in their weapons and allows civilians to return. U.S. officials have warned that if guerrillas do not surrender their weapons, Marines are prepared to storm the city.Iraqi families lined up to return to Fallujah. As part of a deal announced Monday, the U.S. military agreed to let 50 families a day back into the city, but the lines at a U.S. checkpoint were so long Tuesday that some 150 people had to be turned away, said Capt. Ed Sullivan. Halliburton Co. identied three contract workers whose bodies were found last week near an attack on a fuel convoy in Iraq this month. Halliburton says the workers were Steven Hulet of Michigan, Jack Montague of Illinois, and Jeffrey Parker of Louisiana. In Mosul Tuesday, a roadside bomb exploded as a U.S. military convoy passed by, killing a U.S. soldier and wounding four others, the military said. Three Iraqi civilians were also wounded, Lt. Col. Joseph Piek said. The death brought to 100 the number of U.S. troops killed in action in April month. A barrage of 18 mortars hit a Baghdad jail, killing 22 prisoners, the U.S. military said. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said the mortar strike hit the Baghdad Confinement Facility run by the U.S.-led coalition. Ninety-two prisoners were wounded in the attack, 25 of them seriously, said Col. Jill Morgenthaler, a U.S. military spokeswoman.Iraq's multinational peacekeeping force scrambled to regroup Monday after Spain's announcement that it would pull out its 1,300 troops, with Albania pledging more soldiers but U.S. officials bracing for further withdrawals. Honduras followed suit late Monday night with President Ricardo Maduro announcing the pullout of his 370 troops "in the shortest time possible," confirming U.S. fears.A top Italian official in Iraq said in comments published Tuesday she was very optimistic that three Italian hostages would be released and suggested ransom could resolve the standoff.Prime Minister John Howard said a new warning that Australians in Iraq are prime kidnapping targets would not force an early withdrawal of Australian forces from the war-ravaged nation, a radio station reported.