Posted on 08/22/2006 12:30:32 AM PDT by jdm
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - One of the defendants in the new trial of Saddam Hussein insisted on Tuesday that the military was attacking only Iranian troops and Kurdish rebels when it launched the Anfal campaign in the 1980s in which tens of thousands of Kurds were killed.
Sultan Hashim al-Tai spoke on the second day of the trial, in which Saddam is charged with genocide over the 1987-88 Operation Anfal in northern Iraq.
Al-Tai, who was the commander of Task Force Anfal and head of the Iraqi Army 1st Corps, said Anfal was launched in areas of the north that had been occupied by Iranian troops with the help of Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas.
''The goal was to fight an organized, armed army ... the goal was not civilians,'' al-Tai said.
(Excerpt) Read more at newspress.com ...
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