BAGHDAD, Iraq – In a surprise announcement Tuesday, Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi promised that former officials in Saddam Hussein’s regime will go on trial next week, before elections scheduled for January.

“I can now tell you clearly and precisely that, God willing, next week the trials of the symbols of the former regime will start, one by one, so that justice can take its path in Iraq,” Allawi told members of Iraq’s National Council, an advisory body, in a live televised address.

Allawi did not name those who would go on trial or say whether Saddam Hussein would be among the first Baath Party leaders to be called to account for crimes committed by the former regime. But other government officials have said recently that Saddam will not go on trial before the election scheduled for Jan. 30.

Allawi’s announcement seemed to catch U.S. and Iraqi government officials off guard.

On Monday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters he did not expect the trials of officials in Saddam’s regime to start until at least 2005, and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in Rome that there was no “specific date” for the trials.

“All I know (is) it will happen after the election,” Zebari said when asked when Saddam would be tried. “I hope it will be soon, weeks.”

Saddam and 11 of his top lieutenants are expected to be tried by a special tribunal on charges including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, though no formal charges have been filed.

In Washington, Boucher said he expected the court proceedings next week to amount to a preliminary hearing, and not an actual trial.

Allawi’s announcement was expected to draw allegations of electioneering from the prime minister’s opponents.

Wednesday is the deadline for the submission of lists of candidates to Iraq’s election commission, and Allawi plans an announcement about his list of candidates. It is also the first official day of the election campaign. At least 79 political parties and coalitions have submitted candidates so far, including some of the Sunni parties that have called for the election to be postponed.

As Allawi’s government planned trials and an election, the capital was rocked by another bombing that challenged its authority and the presence of U.S. troops.

Insurgents struck for a second consecutive day at the entrance to Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, killing at least one member of the Iraqi National Guard and injuring 15. The suicide bombing took place close to the site of a similar blast Monday that killed seven Iraqis.

The 8:30 a.m. attack appeared to target a National Guard recruiting center just yards from a checkpoint leading to the Green Zone.

The back-to-back suicide bombings hammered home the message that the interim government and U.S. forces are unable to secure even the perimeter of their fortified enclave in the heart of Baghdad.

—

(c) 2004, Chicago Tribune.

Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.