Saddam Hussein has gone on hunger strike in protest at the murder yesterday morning of one of his lawyers, the head of the former dictator's defence team said today.

Khalil al-Dulaimi said that he had come to know of the hunger strike by Saddam and 55 officials in his former regime, all held in conditions of secrecy and maximum security, "through our special contacts".

"Saddam and 55 other detainees are on a hunger strike since yesterday after the killing of Khamis al-Obeidi," Mr al-Dulaimi told the AFP news agency.

He said that the hunger strikers wanted US and international committees to give guarantees "for the security of the other defence lawyers". A US military spokesman said that he was unaware of the hunger strike and promised to "check it out".

Mr al-Dulaimi said that the defence team had contacted the "United Nations and the Arab League and other parties concerning the trial to do everything to protect the lawyers".

The US army confirmed that Saddam had been refusing food since eating his breakfast this morning in a US-run prison. A spokesman said that other former Saddam aides being held in the same prison had refused been refusing food since Wednesday evening.

“Saddam Hussein refused his midday meal today,” he told Reuters. “Despite their refusal to eat their meals, they are in good health and receiving appropriate medical care.”

Mr al-Obeidi was the third defence lawyer for Saddam and his seven former henchmen to be killed since their trial on charges of crimes against humanity started in October.

About 20 men dressed in civilian clothes dragged him from his home at 7am yesterday and, within a few hours, his body was lying on the roadside, bullet holes through the head and both arms broken.

He had insisted on remaining in his Baghdad home in spite of the dangers, refusing to move to the heavily fortified Green Zone, or to commute from neighbouring Jordan.

"If we withdraw out of fear it will not be a shame for us as lawyers but for the entire Iraqi judicial system," he said this month. "The only weapon we have is praying to God to protect us from being killed."

The 49-year-old Sunni said that he believed in the law and trusted his fellow Iraqis.

Times Recommends

• Henning Mankell: ‘If Wallander was alive, I wouldn’t be a friend of his’
• Secret society's skull and crossbones for sale
• Nigerian leader vanishes after medical treatment