NOT even the news of Saddam Hussein’s approaching trial and possible execution can quench Um Talal-Khuraytli’s thirst for revenge. Her one wish in life, she says, is to drink his blood.

“If they hanged Saddam in front of me and I was given the chance to cut him to pieces, it would not be enough,” said the elderly Shi’ite, whose tears flowed as she remembered her dead children. “Each of them was worth 1,000 Saddams.”

Um Talal’s horror stretches back to July 1982, when her family’s village, Dujail, 40 miles north of Baghdad, hosted a visit by Saddam. Tired of decades of repression by his Sunni-dominated Ba’athist security forces, the Shi’ite men risked all on an assassination attempt.

Trying to kill Saddam, protected as he was by a bristling security entourage, was hopelessly naive and the president’s revenge was inevitable. As troops and helicopter gunships razed Dujail, Um Talal’s family was rounded up.

Now, almost a quarter of a century later, Um Talal may at last see justice. Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the prime minister, said last week Saddam would go on trial before the end of the year and the Dujail massacre emerged as one of 14 thoroughly documented cases that will be used in his prosecution. Um Talal will be a key witness.

Apart from the brutal suppression of Kurdish and Shi’ite uprisings, other charges against Saddam will probably include the killing of rival politicians and the invasion of Kuwait.

Among those involved in the Dujail attack was Sheikh Faris al-Dujaili. Last week he recalled the events of July 8, 1982, and how he and 18 other young men planned to ambush Saddam’s fleet of vehicles as it came down the main road.

Armed with machineguns, the group had lain in wait in farmland for days. At 1.30pm, their scout sent back news of the president’s approach: his was the 13th vehicle in a convoy of 22 Mercedes cars. As the limousines neared, the men opened fire.

“But we did not know the cars were bulletproof,” al-Dujaili lamented. “If only we’d had RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), we would have saved Iraq from this oppressor.”

Despite being so badly outnumbered and outgunned, al-Dujaili and his insurgents put up a plucky fight. He saw Saddam scramble for shelter beneath his car while his bodyguards and escorts laid down covering fire. Nine of al-Dujaili’s colleagues were killed and he claimed 22 of Saddam’s men also died.

Anxious to preserve his strongman image, Saddam continued with his visit. But within an hour of his departure, the gunships and special forces arrived. Al-Dujaili and his surviving comrades hid for five days, then stayed in the home of a Baghdad dentist for a month before moving on to Iran. The dentist and her husband were later executed.

Those left in the village faced a terrible fate. Hundreds of families were arrested and thousands of acres of palm and fruit plantations, the main source of income for the villagers, were put to the torch. Even today, the scars are visible — the main road is pocked with holes from the shells that rained down 23 years ago.

Despite having played no part in the fighting, Um Talal’s family was rounded up, including her husband, six daughters, six sons, a daughter-in-law and a six-year-old grandson. Saddam’s troops executed 15 villagers immediately; then the interrogations began.

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