Iraq reaches new milestone as court opens Saddam trial

SADDAM Hussein and seven senior members of his 23-year regime will go on trial today.

They will face charges that they ordered the 1982 killings of nearly 150 people from the mainly Shi’ite town of Dujail following a failed attempt on Saddam’s life.

Court officials have said they are trying Saddam on the Dujail massacre first because it was the easiest and quickest case to put together. Other cases - including a crackdown on the Kurds that killed an estimated 180,000 people - involve much larger numbers of victims, more witnesses and more documentation.