M A I N   N E W S

UK opposes death penalty for Saddam
More bloodshed, nine killed in Iraq

Baghdad, December 15
The United Kingdom said today it would play no part in any trial of Saddam Hussein that might lead to his death, even as nine persons were killed in suicide car bombings at two Baghdad area police stations.

“The UK is against the death penalty,” Britain’s senior envoy to Iraq Jeremy Greenstock said. “So we would have no part of a tribunal or a process that had the death penalty as one of its penalties.”

In fresh violence, one attacker today crashed his car into the gates of Zuhour police station at Husseiniyah, a village 30 km north of Baghdad, before detonating explosives that killed himself and seven cops, a police spokesman said. Around 20 persons were wounded.

In Baghdad 30 minutes later a second bomber blew himself up in a car packed with explosives outside Amiriyah Criminal Investigation Department. He died and 12 persons — eight police and four passers-by — were wounded.

‘’We were standing outside the police station when a very fast car came. We shouted to try and stop him but he detonated the car,’’ officer Mohamed Hashim said as blood poured from his injured hand.

Another attack on the station was foiled minutes later when police fired at an approaching speeding car. The driver abandoned the vehicle and fled. Explosives were found in his car and defused.

The blast left a 3-foot-deep crater about 10 metres from the entrance of the building whose facade was demolished by the blast.

Meanwhile, a member of Iraq’s Governing Council said Saddam Hussein was still in Iraq, denying reports he had been moved to a US installation in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar.

“There is no truth to this news. Saddam is still in Iraq. Saddam will be put on trial in Baghdad in an Iraqi court that will be fair,” Mr Muwafaq al-Rubaiye told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television.

The US Central Command in Florida had earlier said that Saddam was under their control but refused to disclose his location for security reasons. — Agencies

Powell phones Sinha

New Delhi, December 15
US Secretary of State Colin Powell this morning telephoned External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and apprised him of the situation arising from the capture of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by the coalition forces.

Mr Powell expressed hope that the capture of the ousted Iraqi ruler “would bring about a change in the psychology of the whole situation” in Iraq, leading to rebuilding and reconstruction and greater respect for the Iraqi Governing Council. — UNI