Saddam Hussein’s ousted Baath party called for its supporters in Iraq to step up attacks on US and Iraqi forces to mark the start of his trial on Wednesday, according to an Internet statement.

“Salute the leader once he makes a public appearance at the trial by firing bullets and mortars of death at the occupier, its men, equipment and bases, as well as agents in the army and the symbols of treason,” it said.

The statement, whose authenticity could not be verified, was addressed to the “Baathist resistance”, “resistance fighters,” and the “Fedayeen (‘men of sacrifice’) of Saddam Hussein”.

“This illegal trial will turn a new page for the Jihad (holy war) of the Iraqi armed resistance... which was organised, launched and prepared for the long run by our companion and leader Saddam Hussein,” it said. “The occupier and its agents in power will never be able to make any political or security benefit from this trial,” said the Baath statement.

In the first of a possible series of trials on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, Saddam will be in court Wednesday along with three former top aides and four Baath regional officials.

The men are accused of killing 143 people from the Shiite village of Dujail in 1982, allegedly as revenge for an attempt on Saddam’s life.

‘Dark chapter’: The trial of Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity will be a major step toward closing a “dark chapter” in Iraq’s blood-stained history, the US State Department said Monday.

Department spokesman Sean McCormack brushed aside suggestions the trial opening Wednesday could spoil determined US efforts to bring the country’s feuding Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities together.

“I think that the Saddam trial is going to be an important process for the Iraqi people in coming to terms and really closing a dark period, dark chapter in their history,” McCormack told reporters.

“Saddam Hussein from our perspective is responsible for the brutal oppression of his own people and the deaths of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people during his two decade reign.”

McCormack said the United States and other countries had provided counseling and technical assistance to the Iraqis as they geared to try Saddam and seven ex-henchmen for a 1982 massacre of Shiites north of Baghdad.