Friday, June 23 2006 12:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: Deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has ended his hunger strike launched to protest the killing of a member of his defense team, the US military said today (June 23, 2006).

"He (Saddam) resumed eating with his dinner meal on June 22," the spokesman of the US-run detainee operations told sources.

Yesterday he said that Saddam had refused his midday meal to protest the killing of Khamis al-Obeidi, one of his senior lawyers defending him in the ongoing trial for crimes against humanity.

The spokesman said that other former regime officials had also ended their strike.

"A group of former regime members resumed eating atthe June 22 evening meal. They had refused three meals beginning with the June 21 evening meal, the June 22 morning and midday meals," the spokesman added.

The spokesman however did not reveal the names of the regime members who had gone on strike.

Saddam's lead lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said yesterday that the former Iraqi ruler and 55 other former regime officials went on hunger strike after they were told about Obeidi's murder, the third defense lawyer to be murdered since the start of trial in October.

Obeidi, 49, was snatched on Wednesday by about 20 men from his home and later shot dead in a Baghdad street.

Dulaimi said Saddam and the others wanted US and international committees to give guarantees 'for the security of the other defense lawyers.'