Local breaking news: Saddam to go on trial in mid-Aug. for Tal Afar

Saddam Hussein and six co-defendants will be put on trial in August for the 1980s campaign that killed an estimated 100,000 Kurds in northern Iraq.

Iraq's High Tribunal said Tuesday the trial will begin on Aug. 21.

The campaign referred to as Operation Anfal — after the Arabic word for "spoils of war" — was aimed at clearing the Kurdish population from near the Iranian border, where Saddam suspected local Kurdish militias had ties to Tehran. Entire villages were razed and their inhabitants either killed or displaced.

When announcing the charges in April, the tribunal characterized the raids as "savage military attacks on civilians," which included the use of mustard gas and other nerve agents.