Iraqi president: Saddam admits ordering killings

Iraq’s president said today that Saddam Hussein had confessed to “crimes” including killings committed during his regime.

Jalal Talabani told Iraqi television that he had been informed by an investigating judge that “he was able to extract confessions from Hussein’s mouth” about crimes “such as executions” which the ousted leader had personally ordered.

Talabani said that some of the confessions involved cases actively under investigation but he did not specify them.

The ousted leader faces his first trial on October 19 for his alleged role in the massacre of Shiites in Dujail, a town north of Baghdad in 1982.

Hussein could face the death penalty if convicted in the Dujail case.