Anfal operation targeted Kurdish guerrillas

BAGHDAD – Defendants in the new trial of Saddam Hussein insisted yesterday 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.

Their comments came on the second day of the trial, in which Saddam is charged with genocide over the 1987-1988 Operation Anfal, in which troops swept across parts of northern Iraq, destroying villages. The court heard a survivor of the campaign testify how his village of Balisan was bombed by chemical weapons.”I saw eight to 12 jets ….There was greenish smoke from the bombs.It was if there was a rotten apple or garlic smell minutes later.People were vomiting …we were blind and screaming.There was no one to rescue us.Just God,” Ali Mostafa Hama told the court.Hama, wearing a traditional Kurdish headdress, said he saw a newborn infant die during the bombardment.”The infant was trying to smell life, but he breathed in the chemicals and died,” he said, speaking in Kurdish with an Arabic translator.Along with Saddam, six co-defendants – mostly military figures – are on trial in the case.One of them, Saddam’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, who led the Anfal campaign, faces genocide charges, while the others are charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes.Two of the co-defendants addressed the court and insisted Anfal was targeted at Iranian troops and allied Kurdish guerrillas in Northern Iraq at a time when Iraq and Iran were locked in a bloody war.”The goal was to fight an organised, armed army …the goal was not civilians,” said Sultan Hashim al-Tai, who was the commander of Task Force Anfal and head of the Iraqi Army 1st Corps.He said civilians in the areas where Anfal took place were “safely transported” to other areas, including the northern city of Kirkuk.Nampa-APThe court heard a survivor of the campaign testify how his village of Balisan was bombed by chemical weapons.”I saw eight to 12 jets ….There was greenish smoke from the bombs.It was if there was a rotten apple or garlic smell minutes later.People were vomiting …we were blind and screaming.There was no one to rescue us.Just God,” Ali Mostafa Hama told the court.Hama, wearing a traditional Kurdish headdress, said he saw a newborn infant die during the bombardment.”The infant was trying to smell life, but he breathed in the chemicals and died,” he said, speaking in Kurdish with an Arabic translator.Along with Saddam, six co-defendants – mostly military figures – are on trial in the case.One of them, Saddam’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, who led the Anfal campaign, faces genocide charges, while the others are charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes.Two of the co-defendants addressed the court and insisted Anfal was targeted at Iranian troops and allied Kurdish guerrillas in Northern Iraq at a time when Iraq and Iran were locked in a bloody war.”The goal was to fight an organised, armed army …the goal was not civilians,” said Sultan Hashim al-Tai, who was the commander of Task Force Anfal and head of the Iraqi Army 1st Corps.He said civilians in the areas where Anfal took place were “safely transported” to other areas, including the northern city of Kirkuk.Nampa-AP