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Quote : | "Angered Hussein: 'We will crush your heads'
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A Kurdish villager testified Tuesday that he fled an attack by Saddam Hussein's forces 18 years ago, leaving behind his mother and two sisters. Years later, their identity cards were discovered in a mass grave, he said.
"Congratulations! you are in a cage, Saddam," witness Ghafour Hassan Abdullah said as he stared at the ousted president. Hussein later lashed out at "agents of Iran and Zionism" in the courtroom and vowed to "crush your heads."
Abdullah, 29, gave the chilling account during the trial of Hussein and six others for their roles in Operation Anfal, the 1987-88 campaign to suppress a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq during the final stages of the war with Iran.
Hussein has insisted that the crackdown was directed against Kurdish guerrillas who were allied with Iran in the 1980-88 war.
If convicted, Hussein and the other defendants could face death by hanging.
Abdullah told the court the attack was launched in February 1988 against his village near the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya. Iraqi planes gave cover to advancing ground troops, who shelled Kurdish communities with artillery, he said.
"At night, I heard the screaming of women and children," he said. He said he fled to neighboring Iran, but that his mother and two sisters went missing. Years later, their ID cards were found in a mass grave near Hatra, he said.
Abdullah asked rhetorically why the Kurds, a non-Arab minority, was suppressed under the ousted regime.
"Why? Because we are Kurds. Why did all disasters befall on us? Because we are Kurds."
He turned to Hussein and said: "Congratulations, Saddam. You are in a cage." He demanded compensation for the loss of his family.
Hussein listened silently to the witness. But he lost his temper when one of the lawyers described Kurdish guerrillas, known here as peshmargas, as freedom fighters.
"You are agents of Iran and Zionism. We will crush your heads," Hussein shouted." |
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/09/12/saddam.trial.ap/index.html9/12/2006 10:16:51 AM |