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TWO CO-DEFENDANTS of Saddam Hussein argued Monday that a crackdown against 148 Shia in 1982 was a legal response to an attempt to assassinate the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. The former judge and head of the Revolutionary Court, Awad Al-Bandar, insisted that the Shia he sentenced to death received a fair trial.

He said all 148 confessed to their role in the attack on Saddam and that they were given a two-week trial that they attended, with lawyers.

"We were at war with Iran, and they confessed that they did their act at orders coming from Iran," Al-Bandar said. Before Al-Bandar, another of the lower- level defendants, Mohamed Azawi Ali, testified Monday, denying the same charges.

Former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan -- once a member of Saddam's inner ruling circle, who is accused of helping direct the crackdown and organising the razing of Dujail farmlands in retaliation -- also took the stand Monday. He denied any role in Dujail but challenged the court, calling it an illegitimate creation of the United States.

Monday's hearing, the 16th since the trial started in October, came amid new fears of sectarian violence after six car bombs ripped through four market places in Baghdad's Shia district of Sadr City on Sunday, killing at least 46 people and wounding over 200 in Iraq's worst blood- letting so far this year. Another seven people were killed and some 50 wounded in further attacks on Monday.

On Sunday, three defendants -- local members of Saddam's former ruling Baath Party -- testified, denying accusations they informed the security forces and the mukhabarat about Dujail families who were subsequently arrested.

Saddam and his half-brother, former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim -- who did not appear Monday testified yesterday. The former Iraqi strongman and seven of his regime officials are charged with killing the 148 Shia, as well as illegal imprisonment and torture of hundreds of others in the crackdown launched after Saddam's motorcade was fired on as it passed through the Shia town of Dujail in 1982.