Saddam Hussein opened his second trial with a show of defiance yesterday, refusing to enter a plea on charges of genocide and war crimes connected to his scorched-earth offensive against Kurds nearly two decades ago.

The trial opened a new legal chapter for the ousted Iraqi leader, who once again faces a possible death penalty for the killings of tens of thousands of Kurds during the Iraqi army’s “Operation Anfal” – Arabic for “spoils of war.”

The 1987-88 crackdown was aimed at crushing independence-minded Kurdish militias and clearing all Kurds from the northern region along the border with Iran. Saddam accused the Kurds of helping Iran in its war with Iraq. Survivors say many villages were razed and countless young men disappeared. “It’s time for humanity to know ... the magnitude and scale of the crimes committed against the people of Kurdistan,” the lead prosecutor, Munqith al-Faroon, said in his opening statement.

“Entire villages were razed to the ground, as if killing the people wasn’t enough,” he said, showing the court photos of the bodies of dead mothers and children. “Wives waited for their husbands, families waited for their children to return – but to no avail.”

The prosecution also accuses the army of using prohibited mustard gas and nerve agents in the campaign, and a map of northern Iraq in the courtroom had red stickers on locations where the weapons were allegedly used. The trial does not deal with the most notorious gassing – the March 1988 attack on Halabja that killed an estimated 5,000 Kurds. That incident will be part of a separate investigation by the Iraqi High Tribunal. The proceedings are taking place in the same courtroom where Saddam spent months jousting with the judges in his turbulent first trial. That case was over the killings of more than 148 Shiite Muslims from the town of Dujail in a crackdown launched after a 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam.

Verdicts for Saddam and seven co-defendants are expected in that case on October 16. The former president faces a possible execution by hanging if convicted.