The trial of Saddam Hussein picked up speed yesterday, as the first courtroom witness testified to the mas-sacre of Shia villagers in 1982. The testimony followed a stormy morning sessionin which defence lawyers staged a brief walk-outafter a dispute with the judge.

Ahmed Mohammed Hassan al-Dujaili, a teenager at the time of the alleged killings, delivered an emotional account of the mass punishment meted out to the inhabitants of his hometown of Dujail following a failed attempt on Mr Hussein'slife. "I saw corpses and the bodies of our neighbours. They were martyred. Some of them, we couldn't even recognise their bodies," said Mr Dujaili, today a member of the Shia Islamist al-Dawa party.