29 killed as Saddam judgement published

BAGHDAD: A Baghdad court published its formal written condemnation of Saddam Hussein on Thursday, setting into motion the legal machinery leading to his execution, as 29 Iraqis were killed in attacks.   

The confirmation of the ousted dictator's death sentence came as his foe US President George W. Bush convened a meeting of his top security advisers to find a way to stem the rising bloodshed in Iraq.   

More than three and a half years after a US-led invasion deposed Saddam's totalitarian regime, the country remains in the grip of a vicious sectarian conflict that claims more than 100 Iraqi lives daily.   

American soldiers are dying in near record numbers; the military confirmed the deaths of five more, bringing December's toll to 101, putting it on course to be one of the bloodiest months for US troops this year.   

Saddam's pending demise -- on December 26 a court ordered his execution within 30 days -- has been welcomed by Washington, but US forces are nevertheless braced for a backlash from his remaining supporters.   

Bitter sectarian and insurgent violence has made a mockery of promises by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government to put in place a new Baghdad security plan.   

Ten people were killed and 35 wounded in east Baghdad near the Shaab stadium when a bomb exploded among a crowd queuing for heating fuel, according to a security official and medics at the Ibn-Nafis hospital.   

Another seven people were killed and two dozen wounded when two booby traps exploded in a popular Baghdad market during the busy morning shopping rush, military officials and medics at Al-Kindi hospital said.   

In the north, two more Iraqis died when a suicide bomber blew up his car outside a local headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, run by Kurdish regional president Massud Barzani, in the city of Mosul, police said.   

A pair of Iraqi soldiers were killed when a booby trap exploded on the highway between the oil refinery depot of Baiji and Saddam's hometown Tikrit, said the local Iraqi-US coordination centre.   

At dusk, two more soldiers were killed when an armed group opened fire on a checkpoint with light weapons and rocket-propelled grenades south of the Shiite village of Dujail, Tikrit police said.   

Another six people were killed in gun and bomb attacks north and south of Baghdad, said security and medical sources, amid gathering tension in anticipation of Saddam's execution.   

The Iraqi High Tribunal published a formal written judgement rejecting the former dictator's appeal against his death sentence.   

The official release of the judgement, signed by Judge Arif Abdulrazzak Shaheen of the Iraqi High Criminal Court in Baghdad, set in motion procedures which should lead to Saddam being executed within days or weeks.   

"The court decided to endorse the condemnation and punishment of the condemned, Saddam Hussein, Barzan Ibrahim Hassan and Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, by hanging, for committing a deliberate crime against humanity," it said.   

The 17-page ruling was published on the website of the Iraqi High Tribunal, which on November 5 convicted Saddam, his half-brother and intelligence chief Hassan and former judge Bandar of ordering the deaths of 148 Dujail villagers.   

Following the formal release of the judgement, the responsibility for organising the execution of the defendants passes to Iraq's government.    

Although a cabinet meeting on Thursday was described by aides in the office of National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie as a planned weekly session, Saddam's fate was expected to be discussed.   

In Jordan, Saddam's defence counsel called on the international community to pressure the US military not to hand Saddam over to the Iraqi hangman.   

"Saddam is a prisoner of war and according to international law he should not be handed to his enemies," chief defence lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said.   

In the calmer surroundings of Bush's Texas ranch, the US president assembled his top aides for final consultation on reviewing his Iraq strategy and the role of America's 129,000 troops deployed in the country.   

Scott Stanzel, a White House spokesman, said Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates were among those summoned to the talks.   

Bush is expected to deliver a speech announcing a new way forward in Iraq early in the New Year.