Related Event: Iraq in Transition 

"With this statement the Iraq Special Tribunal has entered a new phase."

A senior judge said on Sunday that Saddam Hussein and three others will stand trial, possibly as early as next month, for the 1982 massacre of Shiite villagers north of Baghdad.

Judge Raid Juhi, chief judge of the Iraqi Special Tribunal announced this as the first criminal case filed against Saddam Hussein.

"With this statement the Iraq Special Tribunal has entered a new phase, the phase of the actual trial of these accused among the henchmen of the former regime."

The three accused along with Hussein are Saddam's half-brother, who is the former intelligence chief; the former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and a former Baath party official in Dujail.

The date for the trial of the 4 is expected to be determined within a few days.

If convicted, all could face the death penalty.

The massacre in Dujail, 50 miles north of Baghdad was in retaliation for an assassination attempt staged by the villagers at the height of Saddam's power.

Saddam is jailed under American control at a U.S. Military detention complex near Baghdad airport.

Meanwhile in Iraq, a fuel truck bomb killed 98 people south of Baghdad. Some 15 suicide bombers have struck in the capital and along its main roads over just 2 days .