Iraq Shiite uprising trial of Saddam aides set to begin

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq will put 15 former aides to executed dictator Saddam Hussein on trial on Tuesday for crimes against humanity during their alleged role in the brutal suppression of a 1991 Shiite rebellion.

Up to 100,000 Shiites are thought to have been killed when Saddam's security forces, driven out of Kuwait by a US-led alliance but not destroyed, turned on a Shiite uprising and put it down in a notorious bloodbath.

The trial will be the third to be held by the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) and will see senior officials of Saddam's regime in the dock, including Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, widely known as Chemical Ali.

Majid -- a former defence minister known for his use of illegal chemical weapons -- has already been sentenced to death for his part in a genocidal 1988 campaign against northern Iraq's Kurdish minority.

Now, the "1991 Intifada (Uprising) Trial" will probe how tens of thousands of Shiites were systematically killed by Saddam's southern army after they rose up against his regime in 1991 in the wake of his defeat in the first Gulf War.