Iraq will put some of Saddam Hussein’s top lieutenants on trial next week, a month before a national election many hope will lay the ghosts of his rule, interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said.

Hours earlier, a second suicide car bomber in 24 hours struck an entrance to Baghdad’s government compound where Allawi spoke, wounding 12 people and possibly killing several. In a separate attack, guerrillas ambushed an Iraqi police convoy traveling from the southern city of Basra to Baghdad, killing at least three police officers, police said. “I will tell you clearly and specifically that next week, God willing, the trials of the symbols of the former regime will begin,” Allawi told the National Council government watchdog.

He did not say whether 67-year-old Saddam would take the stand, but officials have said before that the former Iraqi president, captured a year ago and under US military guard, would be among the last to face justice. Allawi’s announcement initially took Iraq’s Justice Ministry and US officials by surprise, but State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: “This is an Iraqi court run by Iraqi judges... We do expect it to be an open process. It will be more and more visible to the general public. We’ll see hearings, we’ll see legal motions and we’ll see a prosecution conducted by the Iraqis.”

A resurgence of violence

Allawi said one of Saddam’s cousins had been arrested and that a new mass grave had been found in Kurdish northern Iraq that may form evidence against the former Iraqi leader. Recording a blow against an insurgency blamed by Iraqi and US officials on foreign Islamists and Saddam supporters, Allawi said police had killed an aide to Jordanian al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and captured two others. Putting members of Saddam’s old government on trial during the election campaign seems intended to rally all Iraqis behind the new US-backed order, though some have said it could inflame ethnic and sectarian divisions.

The Sunni Arab minority did well under Saddam, but elections will favor the long-oppressed Shi’ite majority. Some Sunni leaders have called for a delay or a boycott of the Jan. 30 poll, saying violence in Sunni areas makes voting impossible. The most prominent Sunni grouping, the Iraqi Islamic Party, said it was among 79 parties and blocs that had submitted lists of candidates before yesterday’s deadline. But the party said it had yet to decide whether to campaign in the poll, in which a 275-seat National Assembly will be elected to draft a constitution and appoint a new government. A resurgence of violence in the Sunni stronghold of Falluja, west of Baghdad, has put pressure on the US Marine force in the region, which suffered two more deaths, bringing to 10 the number of Marines killed in action in three days.

US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Richard Myers said “pockets” of guerrillas were active in Falluja, preventing residents going home. He said during a visit to Baghdad an increase in US troop numbers to protect the election would be reversed after the vote — depending on the course of events.

Myers said failure to hold the election on time would be “a victory for the insurgents.” But Allawi said: “We shouldn’t think (the violence) will all stop on Jan. 30. We are facing a battle between good and evil.” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, under US pressure to provide more help for the Iraqi election, would meet Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice in Washington today, his spokesman said.

The suicide bombing at an entrance to Baghdad’s so-called “Green Zone” government compound mirrored an attack Monday at the same checkpoint on the anniversary of Saddam’s arrest. Hospital staff said 12 civilians were wounded. “Two of the people standing next to me were killed. I saw them cut to pieces,” said one wounded man, Feras Saher. Zarqawi’s group claimed responsibility for Monday’s bombing, which a hospital official said killed nine people. The attack on the police convoy occurred near the town of Salman Pak, about 30 km (20 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

Lin NOUEIHED Waleed IBRAHIM

“CHEMICAL ALI” TO BE TRIED FIRST

■ Ali Hassan al-Majid, one of Saddam Hussein’s closest aides and better known as “Chemical Ali”, will be the first of Saddam’s top deputies to be tried, Iraq’s Defence Minister Hazim al-Shalaan said yesterday. Shalaan, speaking to reporters, said the trial could start next week and would definitely take place by mid-January. “In the next few days we will have the trial of Ali Hassan al-Majid, one of the close followers of Saddam Hussein,” Shalaan said, speaking through an interpreter. “He will be the first to be tried.” Asked if the trial would go ahead next week, Shalaan said, again through an interpreter: “Yes, God willing.” But asked to repeat his response in English, the defence minister said: “Next week, maybe, or in the middle of next month.” Shalaan, who said Majid was the only one of Saddam’s former lieutenants so far earmarked for trial, said he did not expect it to be a long process, adding that all the evidence and witnesses were in place.