Saddam Hussein and three co-defendants are on the 10th day of a hunger strike over demands for better security for defence lawyers but their health remains good, a US military spokesman said Monday.

Saddam and the others have refused meals since dinner on July 7, Lieutenant Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry, spokesman for detainee operations, said.

Curry said Saddam, 69, whose trial resumes next Monday, was drinking coffee with sugar and water with nutrients. "We are ensuring they receive proper care and attention," Curry said. "Despite their refusal to eat their meals, they are in good health and receiving appropriate medical care."

He said all detainees "have access to care by a physician at all times. Additional medical attention is focused on those detainees who continue to refuse meals."

The other three defendants on hunger strike have not been identified. Three defence lawyers have been slain since the trial began last October.

Gunmen storm market, 50 killed

Gunmen killed over 50 people in an attack around a crowded market in a violent town near Baghdad Monday, one of the bloodiest incidents in Iraq this year.

Local officials and residents in Mahmudiya, as well as the US military whose troops were later on the scene, said a large number of gunmen stormed the market in the religiously mixed town after a barrage of mortars and grenades.

It was a rare form of attack against civilians. Car bombings are more common. The Iraqi Defence Ministry insisted, despite denials from other agencies, that two car bombs killed 42 people and an Interior Ministry official said one car bomb went off.

But accounts direct from the scene stressed the main attack was from gunmen on foot, tossing grenades and firing on people. The local hospital said it took in 56 dead bodies and 67 wounded. Shops, homes and cars were left ablaze, residents said.

(China Daily July 18, 2006)