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Saddam's Trial for 1982 Killing of Shi'ites to Resume Wednesday

update

Saddam Hussein's trial for the 1982 killing of more than 140 Shi'ites in the Iraqi village of Dujail is set to resume Wednesday.

Saddam is expected to testify during the proceedings.

He has admitted giving orders that led to the killings. He said the orders were legal, and that a judge had found all of the executed guilty in a failed assassination attempt against him.

Saddam and his seven co-defendants face death by hanging if found guilty of the killings.

Tuesday, Iraqi prosecutors said Saddam and six others will also be tried on genocide charges and crimes against humanity for a 1980s campaign against Iraq's Kurdish minorities.

Human rights groups say the so-called Anfal campaign left about 180,000 people dead. The new trial could start as early as next month.

In Washington, President Bush said it is time for Iraqi politicians to form a unity government. He said every day of delay is another day of violence in the war-torn country.

Talks among Iraq's Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni Arab leaders have been going on for nearly four months with no agreement on who will lead the new parliament.

And Iraqi police say bomb blasts in Baghdad and Samarra killed at least nine people and wounded 30 others. Separately, the U.S. military says it has recovered the body of a sixth Marine killed Sunday during a flash flood in al-Anbar province.

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

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