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Iraq

Death fills defense with fear

BAGHDAD - The body of a lawyer for one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants was found dumped in the street with two bullet wounds in the head hours after he was kidnapped Thursday.

A fearful defense team demanded Friday that the trial - now set to resume Nov. 28 - be postponed if investigations into the slaying are not finished. They also demanded the government provide them protection and even move the trial outside Iraq, said Khamees Hamid al-Ubaidi, one of Hussein's two lawyers.

Four American service members were killed in insurgent attacks, edging the total number of U.S. military deaths near 2,000 since the start of the Iraq war.

Investigators were trying to determine if the killers of Sunni Arab lawyer Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi were Hussein opponents lashing out at the defense team or perhaps Sunni insurgents - including many Hussein supporters - trying to disrupt the trial. Janabi was the lawyer for Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former head of Hussein's Revolutionary Court.

Ten gunmen wearing police and military uniforms walked into Janabi's Baghdad office Thursday, and he went with them without resistance, police Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi said.

Hours later, his body, bearing signs of torture, was found on a sidewalk by the Fardous mosque.

Heavy security was provided for trial prosecutors and judges, who were considered likely targets of insurgents. Their names have not been revealed and their faces were not shown in the broadcast of the opening session Wednesday of Hussein's trial - with the exception of the presiding judge and the top prosecutor, whose identities were revealed for the first time.

But no security measures were extended to the defense lawyers. Their identities have been known, though most of them have not been prominent in the press.

The latest American deaths occurred Thursday. Three Marines died when a bomb hit their patrol in Nasser wa Salam, 25 miles west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. And in the northwestern town of Hit, an American soldier was killed by "indirect fire," a term that usually means a mortar or rocket attack.

At least 1,992 members of the U.S. military have died since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Meanwhile, the election commission announced turnout figures Friday, saying 9,775,000 Iraqis cast ballots - or 63 percent of registered voters.

That was higher than January's parliament elections, in which 60 percent of Iraqis participated, including fewer Sunni Arabs.

[Last modified October 22, 2005, 01:14:12]