SADDAM

BAGHDAD (Reuters):

An Iraqi Kurd told Saddam Hussein's genocide trial yesterday how the remains of his mother and sisters were found in a mass grave 200 km (120 miles) from their village after it was razed by Saddam's troops.

A defiant Saddam defended his policy of crushing Kurdish rebels in the 1980s as his Sunni-led government fought a war against Iran and shouted before the judge cut his microphone: "You are agents of Iran and Zionism. We will crush your heads!"

Addressing the ex-leader with a taunting: "Congratulations, Saddam Hussein. You are now in a cage!" Abdul Ghafour described how he fled to neighbouring Iran with other relatives as troops shelled the village in Iraq's Kurdistan in February of 1988.

The toppled leader later fired back, telling the judge: "When you cage a lion, any coward can poke a stick at him."

Identity cards

Speaking calmly in Kurdish, Abdul Ghafour said the remains of his mother and two sisters, along with their identity cards, were unearthed in a desert mass grave 15 years after the attack on the mountain village of Seydar, near northern Sulaimaniya.

"I don't know why these tragedies came to us. Is it only because we're Kurds?" he asked.

Dressed in a dark suit and tieless, Saddam stroked his beard and listened silently to the witness, but erupted into a rage during cross-examination when a civil attorney described Kurdish peshmerga militias as freedom fighters battling his tyranny.

"From 1961 to 2003, rebellion is rebellion. Let's come up with one country which had a rebellion that wasn't confronted by the army," he said.

The court was adjourned until Wednesday after the judge listened to three more survivors describe gas attacks.