Saddam Hussein turned up at his genocide trial yesterday, despite writing earlier to the chief judge and telling him he would no longer attend court sessions in protest at being repeated silenced from speaking.

Saddam and six others are on trial for the Anfal - Spoils of War - military campaign against ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq in the 1980s in which prosecutors say up to 180,000 people were killed in poison gas attacks and mass executions.

In a letter handed to a defence team lawyer who saw him on Monday, the former Iraqi leader said he had been denied "clarifying the truth" over his role in Anfal, which the defence argues was a legitimate operation against Kurdish rebels siding with Iraq's Iranian foe.

Saddam, who is awaiting an appeal against a death sentence from a separate case, was furious when the judge refused to give him an opportunity to refute prosecution allegations he swindled US$10 billion of state assets.

"So I tell you I cannot take these continued insults from you and others ... and I ask you to relieve me from attending the sessions of this new farce and you can do whatever you want," Saddam said in the letter released by his lawyers.

In another development, two mortar rounds exploded yesterday in a market that sells second-hand goods in the capital in Iraq, killing at least eight people and wounding 40, police said.

The attack occurred at 11:20 am in the Haraj Market in northern Baghdad, said police officers Ali Mutab and Mohammed Khayoun, who provided the casualty totals.

About 25 minutes later, a suicide bomber with explosives hidden beneath his clothing set them off aboard a bus in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding 15, police 1st Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said.

It appeared to be the first attack by suspected Sunni Arab insurgents on the large Shiite slum since November 23, when a bombing and mortar attack killed 215 people in Sadr City in the deadliest single attack since the Iraq war started more than three years ago.

Source: China Daily