Former commanders of Saddam Hussein's military go on trial in Baghdad today for their role in crushing a Shia rebellion in southern Iraq at the end of the 1991 Gulf War.
Standing alongside the military officers are Saddam's former defence minister at the time and his personal secretary. The most high profile of the 15 defendants is Saddam's feared cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as "Chemical Ali".
The rebellion, and a simultaneous one in Kurdish areas in northern Iraq, erupted in early March 1991 after a US-led coalition routed Saddam's army in Kuwait. Rebels seized control of many cities and towns in the south.
The rebels expected US forces to come to their aid, especially since then-US president George Bush had called on the Iraqi people and the military to oust Saddam.
But Mr Bush and his coalition partners held their troops in check, however, and tens of thousands are estimated to have been killed in Saddam's crackdown. Prosecutors in the case have put the death toll at 100,000.
The 15 accused face charges of crimes against humanity "for engaging in widespread or systematic attacks against a civilian population".
Three of the accused, including Majeed, were sentenced to death in the earlier Anfal trial, which dealt with a military campaign against Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988 in which tens of thousands of people were killed.
The five convicted in the Anfal case are appealing their sentences. If Majeed and the two others sentenced to death lose their appeal they could be executed.