Saddam trial adds 1 judge, ousts a 2nd

The changes raised new questions about the fairness of the process and provided yet more signs of disarray in a trial already marked by delays, assassinations and chaotic courtroom outbursts by the former Iraqi ruler.

The new chief judge will be Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman, who like his predecessor is a Kurd. Abdel-Rahman serves on a backup panel and has been following the trial, officials said.

Rizgar Mohammed Amin submitted his resignation as chief judge Jan. 15 after complaints by politicians and officials that he failed to maintain control of the proceedings.

Saddam's legal team said it was more concerned about alleged government pressure on the court than who serves as chief judge.

"We don't care who is the presiding judge," lawyer Khamis al-Obeidi told The Associated Press. "But we will pull the rug from under his feet if he succumbs to the influence of the government."

Also Monday, gunmen wearing uniforms of a Shiite-led security force swept into a Sunni Arab neighborhood in central Baghdad before dawn, killing three men and speeding away with more than 20 others, police and witnesses said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said seven more U.S. troops had been killed — a soldier in a roadside bombing in Baghdad on Monday, two Air Force members in a blast near Taji north of the capital late Sunday, and four soldiers in a roadside bombing near the northern town of Hawijah on Friday.

There was no word on the fate of kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll.

Iraqi officials said joint U.S.-Iraqi operations were carried out recently to free her, but they provided no details.

Also Monday, bodies of eight Sunni Arabs were found in a field north of Baghdad — five days after they were seized on their way home by bus after being rejected for admission to the police academy in the capital.

Twenty-three bodies of the group were found Sunday, and 35 were believed to have been on the bus. Police are often targeted by insurgents.

The pre-dawn raid in the predominantly Sunni Arab town of Toubji threatens to inflame sectarian tensions as leaders of Iraq's religious and ethnic communities prepare for talks on a unity government to include Sunni Arabs, the heart of the insurgency.

Sunni Arabs have long complained of abuse by Shiite militias and security services and have demanded that those responsible be punished.

The raid began about 5 a.m., when seven carloads of gunmen rolled into the neighborhood, witnesses and police said.

The gunmen fanned out, entering a mosque and several homes. They dragged males out of their beds and herded them into the street.

Hooded figures, presumably informants, identified those to be taken away, witnesses reported. Three men were shot dead, and about 20 were forced into trucks and driven away, witnesses said. Three men were later freed in eastern Baghdad but the rest remained unaccounted for, witnesses added. One of those released, Yasser Khalil, 24, said he was beaten.

● Deaths: 2,237

● Wounded: 16,472

Latest identifications

● No casualties identified Monday.

Department of Defense. Deaths as of Monday. Wounded as of Wednesday.