Baghdad, Iraq ? Iraq will bring top figures of Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime to court next week for the first time since they appeared before a judge five months ago, and formal indictments could be issued next month. Many have been in custody for more than a year and have not met with lawyers, prompting Saddam’s attorneys to cry foul.

The regime figures face charges for crimes allegedly committed during the 35-year Baath Party dictatorship, including war crimes, mass killings and the suppression of the 1991 Shiite rebellion. Saddam, who was arrested a year ago Monday, will not be among those to appear in court next week, The Associated Press has learned.

Sabid Abdul Aziz al-Douri, the mayor of Baghdad, Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, leads a line of former Saddam conspirators waiting to appear before a special tribunal in this July 1 photo. Several top regime figures are scheduled to stand trial next week in Iraq. The group includes his former presidential secretary; his deputy prime minister, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical

Tuesday’s surprise announcement by Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi came only days after government leaders said the Special Tribunal was not yet prepared to begin the trials. Iraqi leaders, working with U.S. officials, need to train judges and prosecutors and sort through stacks of evidence, all under the pressure of a deadly insurgency that has attacked at will.

In the latest violence, insurgents killed seven people Tuesday in the second suicide bombing in two days outside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone. The military also announced that two U.S. Marines from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based in western Iraq died in combat in Baghdad province Monday, bringing the number of Marines killed to 10 in three days.

To help secure the country, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced in Baghdad that the U.S. military would have a record-high 150,000 troops in Iraq through the Jan. 30 elections and “a little bit after.”

The government had said in early December that troop levels would be raised from 138,000 to 150,000 to help secure next month’s vote, which many Iraqis fear could be targeted by militants opposed to the occupation and bent on derailing the political process. Asked when exactly the troops would pull out, Myers responded: “That will be determined by events on the ground.”

Allawi’s government has been under pressure recently to show progress on the trials. His announcement came a day after the U.S. military acknowledged that eight of Saddam’s 11 top lieutenants went on a hunger strike over the weekend to demand jail visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross. The officials were eating again by Monday, the military said.

The prime minister also may have an eye toward Iraq’s Jan. 30 elections. Allawi officially confirmed he would join the race when his office released a terse statement saying he would unveil his list of candidates for the vote today.

Casualties from a suicide bombing are brought into Baghdad's Yarmouk hospital. A suicide car bomber killed seven people Tuesday when he struck a checkpoint at Baghdad's Green Zone, the second attack in two days at the district that houses Iraq's interim government and foreign embassies.

It was not immediately known whether next week’s court hearings would be open to reporters. But officials have said the trials will be as transparent as possible.

“I can now tell you clearly and precisely that, God willing, next week the trials of the symbols of the former regime will start, one by one, so that justice can take its path in Iraq,” Allawi told the interim National Council, without saying who would be tried.