Iraqi Kurds Accused of Spying for Iran

Kurdish witness Asia Tahir Kreit provides eyewitness testimony during the trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein inside the heavily fortified Green Zone Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006 in Baghdad, Iraq. Saddam and 6 other defendants are facing charges of crimes against humanity for their roles in the Anfal military operation from 1987-88 that prosecutors say killed thousands of Iraqis. (AP Photo/Scott Nelson, Pool) (Scott Nelson - AP)

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A co-defendant in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial accused Iraqi Kurds on Wednesday of spying for the Iranians at the time of the government crackdown on the Kurdish population.

Former military intelligence chief Sabir al-Douri made the accusation after listening to Kurdish witnesses testify about chemical attacks against their villages in northern Dahuk province in August 1988.

Saddam, al-Douri and five other former members of Saddam's regime have pleaded innocent to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their role in the military offensive against the Kurds, known as Operation Anfal. The prosecution says about 180,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the 1987-88 crackdown. Saddam and one other defendant are also charged with genocide.

Saddam is already under a death sentence imposed by another court Sunday for the deaths of more than 140 Shiite Muslims after an assassination attempt against him in the town of Dujail in 1982.

His trial for the Kurdish crackdown will continue while an appeals court reviews the Dujail case.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was quoted as telling the British Broadcasting Corp. that if an appeals panel upholds the Dujail sentence, Saddam could be executed before the end of the year.

Al-Douri told the court the Iranians, who fought an eight-year war with Iraq starting in 1980, had asked Kurdish guerrillas to provide intelligence about a prison camp near Mosul and about the homes of two senior Iraqi commanders in the north.

"The (Kurdish) rebels and the Iranians were working together there," he said.

The presiding judge did not respond to the remark.

The trial adjourned until Nov. 27 to give time for the defense to assemble its list of witnesses. But court spokesman Raed Juhi said the prosecution still had more witnesses to call.

If convicted, Saddam and his co-defendants could be sentenced to death.

With the likelihood of his execution increasing, Saddam rose in the dock Tuesday and called on all Iraqis to "forgive, reconcile and shake hands."