Kurds tell of gas attacks at Saddam trial

On the second day of Saddam's genocide trial at the Iraqi High Tribunal, prosecutors presented witnesses to testify to the alleged savagery of the 1987-1988 Anfal campaign against Iraq's Kurdish minority.

"If we were Iraqis, why did you bomb us?" demanded Najib Khudair Ahmad, a 41-year-old mother who confronted Saddam with a scarred face she said was the result of a chemical weapon attack on the village of Sheikwasan.

The prosecution alleges that up to 182,000 civilians were slaughtered in air strikes, chemical attacks and armed sweeps by Iraqi forces through designated "prohibited zones" in Kurdish regions between 1987 and 1988.

"On April 16, 1987 in the evening as the cattle were returning home and the sun was setting in the sky, about eight to 12 jets covered the sky," said Ali Mustafa Hama, a Kurdish villager with a thick moustache and spotted headscarf.

"The jets started firing on the villages of Belisand and Sheikwasan. The explosions were not very loud," he said, testifying in open court, unlike the witnesses in Saddam's previous trial, whose identities were concealed.

"There was green smoke rising from the bomb, as if there was a rotten apple or garlic smell. Lots of citizens immediately had red eyes and began to vomit. Afterwards it was dark," the middle-aged farmer continued.

Hama was the first witness to testify in Kurdish, the native tongue of his minority community.

Afterwards, Ahmad told the court how she lost family members in the attack on Sheikwasan.