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Saddam Trial Hears Testimony on 1980s Chemical Attacks

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A former Kurdish fighter has told the genocide trial of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein about alleged chemical attacks by the Saddam regime.

Abdel Qader Abdullah testified Monday, in Baghdad that he lost 22 relatives, including his mother and two baby daughters, in a chemical attack in 1988.

After Abdullah's testimony, the judge adjourned the trial until Wednesday.

The trial is expected soon to enter a second phase. The prosecution is expected to produce documents to show the Saddam government was behind the deadly Anfal campaign against the Kurds.

The genocide trial is the second for the former president and senior officials of his ousted regime. In the first trial, Saddam and two co-defendants were sentenced to death by hanging for crimes against humanity.

On Sunday, lawyers for the former president filed papers to appeal his death sentence in that case.

The court ruled that Saddam and two former officials will hang for ordering the execution of 148 men and boys from the Shi'ite town of Dujail after an assassination attempt against Saddam in 1982.

The prosecution in the second trial says more than 180,000 Kurds were killed in the Anfal campaign.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

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