Crowd targets ex-Iraqi prime minister

BAGHDAD -- An angry crowd confronted Iraq's former prime minister Iyad Allawi at a Shi'ite shrine south of Baghdad yesterday, forcing him to flee in a hail of stones and shoes. Allawi called the attack an assassination attempt.

In Baghdad, one of the five judges in the trial of Saddam Hussein stepped down because one of the codefendants may have been involved in the execution of his brother, a court official said yesterday. Another official said police had uncovered a plot to fire rockets at the courtroom when the trial convenes today for a third session.

The confrontation in Najaf began when about a dozen men, some armed with clubs, tried to block Allawi from entering the Imam Ali mosque, one of the holiest Shi'ite shrines in Iraq. Allawi's bodyguards fired shots in the air to disperse the crowd.

Once Allawi and his entourage were inside, the crowd grew to about 60, and as the group left, they were showered with stones and shoes -- a sign of contempt in Iraqi culture. Allawi and his security force knocked over barricades as they scampered to their vehicles and sped away.

Official says the United States may reduce troops in Iraq next year. A12. Allawi later said the group was armed with pistols, knives, and swords, and at least seven shots were fired from the crowd.

''They were planning to kill the whole delegation, or at least me," Allawi told reporters.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told CNN's ''Late Edition" that it was unclear whether the incident was an assassination attempt ''or just a disruption by the angry crowd who might not agree with Dr. Allawi's policy."

Allawi, a secular Shi'ite, is a candidate for parliament in the Dec. 15 election, running at the head of a broad-based ticket that includes several prominent Sunni Arabs. When he was prime minister, US and Iraqi troops seized control of Najaf from the firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Many Shi'ites have not forgiven Allawi for his role in the assault, and many in the crowd of attackers were believed to be al-Sadr followers.

Allawi, a former member of Hussein's Ba'ath party, also earned the contempt of many Shi'ites for recruiting veterans of the ousted regime's security services to bolster Iraq's military and intelligence resources in the fight against the Sunni-led insurgents.

Tensions are running high across Iraq in advance of the Dec. 15 election, during which Iraqis will choose a parliament to serve for a full four-year term. A coalition of Shi'ite religious parties is expected to win the largest share of the 275 seats.

In other violence yesterday, gunmen killed a Shi'ite parliamentary candidate and an Iraqi police commander in separate attacks. A bomb also detonated as a police patrol passed through central Baghdad, killing three civilians.

Amid the tension, the Iraqi High Tribunal convenes today for a third session of the trial of Saddam and seven codefendants, accused in the 1982 killing of more than 140 Shi'ites after an assassination attempt against the president in Dujail.

The defense has challenged the legitimacy of the court and is expected to ask for a recess to prepare its case.

A statement released yesterday by the office of Mouwaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser, said the 1920 Revolution Brigades, one of the country's best-known insurgent groups, planned to attack the building during the court session. The statement gave no further details.

Since the trial opened, two defense lawyers have been assassinated and a third has fled the country.