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| Iraq |
| Plot to kill Saddam judge demonstrates Baathist alliance with al-Qaeda |
| 2005-11-28 |
| Police in Iraq revealed on Sunday - one day before the resumption of Saddam Hussein's trial - that they had uncovered a plot to kill the chief investigating judge trying the case. Eight people were arrested four days ago near the northern city of Kirkuk, who police said had prepared car bombs and had written instructions from Saddam Hussein's former deputy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, to kill judge Raeed Juhi. The men were arrested in a pre-dawn raid on a house and identified as agents from the dictator's former government, which Kirkuk police chief Colonel Anwar Qader Mohammed said demonstrates a link between Saddam's former security services and the terror group al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. One of the arrested men is said to be the son of one of al-Zarqawi's deputies and literature and instructions from al-Qaeda in Iraq were also found in the house. Mohammed said the group was also planning to detonate bombs at busy road junctions in Kirkuk to draw attention away from the trial. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |