Relatives Testify In Saddam's Defense
Relatives of defendants in the trial of Saddam Hussein and members of his former regime testified Tuesday as the defense tried to knock down charges of crimes against humanity that carry a possible death penalty.
Their testimony came a day after chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman accused Saddam of ordering a "systematic, widescale attack" on Shiites in the town of Dujail — including the killings of women and children, torture and the imprisonment of 399 people. The judge read similar charges against each of Saddam's seven co-defendants.
That brought the 7-month-old trial to a new, intensified level. Under the Iraqi system, the charges effectively put the burden on proof on the defense because they represent accusations that the five judges believe the evidence so far has supported.
Meanwhile, gunmen raided a parking lot and blew up a parked oil tanker in northeastern Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 18 people and injuring at least 37, police said. Another raid by gunmen killed four people working at a U.S. base in Taji when they opened fire on their minivan in northern Baghdad. Another eight riding in the van were injured, Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said.
Fighting between suspected insurgents and Iraqi police killed at least six civilians in Baghdad and officials said roadside bombs had killed three U.S. soldiers. Another roadside bomb killed two unidentified Iraqis near Youssifiyah, south of the capital.
In other developments:
Police Capt. Ali al-Obeidi said in the parking lot attack, the gunmen first shot five guards at the open-air lot that served as a parking area and small market in the Shaab neighborhood, a commercial district.
As bystanders rushed to the scene, a car bomb detonated next to an oil tanker, which exploded and engulfed the area in a fireball. AP Television News footage showed the remnants of an exploded car and sandals and clothes of the many dead and injured.
The attack seemed to be organized and designed to kill as many people as possible.
The motivation for the attack was unclear, but it may have been sectarian. The Shaab neighborhood is mainly Shiite.
The attacks raised to at least 2,448 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the start of the war in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
At 6:10 a.m., a roadside bomb exploded in central Baghdad's Karradah shopping district, destroying the liquor store and damaging two nearby shops. None of the stores in the area had opened yet, and the blast caused no casualties, police said.
"This liquor shop has been targeted three times," said Falah Hassan, 50, the owner of one of the two damaged shops. "The first time it was hit by a grenade. The second time gunmen stormed it, hurt its workers and stole their money. Today, militants placed a bomb beside it," Hassan told Associated Press TV.
Some Muslim religious leaders in Iraq have tried to ban the drinking of alcohol, even though it is legal under the country's new constitution. Many of Baghdad's liquor stores are operated by Iraq's Christian minority, and some have been threatened or closed by Islamist militants, who also often demand that women wear veils while in public.
Iraq's interior ministry also announced Tuesday that it had arrested two al Qaeda in Iraq members the day before: Salah Hussein Abdul-Razzaq in Ramadi and Omar Ahmed Salah in Baghdad.
In other violence, Amir Latif Ali Yahya, the Electoral Commission director in Diyala province, escaped unharmed when a roadside bomb exploded near his car in Buhriz, 35 miles north of Baghdad.
Gunmen killed Nazar Abdel-Zahra, a manager of a local soccer team, near his home in the southern city of Basra on Monday night. Suspected insurgents also fired rockets at the Shat al-Arab Hotel, headquarters of the British army in Basra, causing no casualties.
The violence came as Iraqi lawmakers alternately — and with varying degrees of sincerity — withdrew from the Cabinet negotiations or threatened to do so, and accused each other of greed, sectarianism and self-interest.
Deputies said Prime Minister-designate Nouri al-Maliki could announce a partial Cabinet ahead of a constitutionally mandated May 22 deadline, taking for himself the disputed defense and interior ministry posts.
President Jalal Talabani, however, rejected that option.
Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a member of the Sunni Arab Accordance Front, said it had reached a deal with the main Shiite United Iraqi Alliance in which the Sunnis would nominate the defense minister. In return, the Shiite bloc would name the interior minister.