Baghdad, Iraq ? The special tribunal that will try Saddam Hussein for war crimes released a video Monday of the deposed Iraqi president being questioned.

The footage showed a bearded Saddam wearing a dark suit and open-collared white shirt and speaking with tribunal head judge Raad Juhi. There was no audio, so it was impossible to tell whether Saddam struck the same defiant and confrontational tone as in his taped arraignment in July 2004.

A statement accompanying the video said it showed Saddam being questioned about the 1982 massacres in the southern village of Dujail. Dozens of Dujail residents were allegedly executed after Saddam escaped an assassination attempt there.

Juhi, when approached Monday evening at a heavily guarded garden reception for the new Egyptian ambassador, declined to comment on the video.

The statement did not say when the video was shot, but Badeea Arif, one of Saddam’s lawyers, told Al-Arabiya television that it appeared to have been filmed in the last 24 hours. Arif said his client’s health appeared to be “not good.”

It was unclear why the tribunal released the video. Unlike last summer’s arraignment, which captivated Iraqi citizens, the questioning had less legal significance. Plus, the charges over the Dujail killings are dwarfed in scope by other counts Saddam is likely to face. Those include suppression of the 1991 uprisings in the Shiite Muslim south and Kurdish north, the systematic eradication of dozens of Kurdish villages, and the 1990 occupation of neighboring Kuwait.

In this photograph released by the Iraqi Special Tribunal, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is seen being questioned by investigating magistrates. It was unclear when or where the questioning took place. An announcement accompanying the tape said Saddam was being questioned about crimes related to the execution of at least 50 Iraqis in 1982 in the Shiite town of Dujail, 50 miles north of Baghdad, in retaliation for a failed assassination attempt against him.

No start date for Saddam’s trial has been announced. Many Iraqi lawmakers have expressed an interest in fast-tracking the prosecution, even if it means skipping some of the more complicated charges that would take years to properly investigate. They hope a speedy trial would shore up public faith in the new U.S.-backed political order, while dealing a lasting psychological blow to the insurgency.

Insurgents continued their violent campaign against the government Monday with a series of scattered attacks in Baghdad and the north that killed 10 Iraqis and wounded at least 55.

A car bomber detonated his vehicle Monday afternoon outside the offices of the local district council in Baghdad’s Yarmouk neighborhood, killing a young girl, injuring five other Iraqi civilians and just missing a top U.S. diplomat.

Residents said the bomber was apparently targeting a U.S. convoy carrying soldiers who regularly attend the district council’s weekly meetings. The council offices are around the corner from the headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party, and party officials said the blast came just minutes after U.S. Charge D’Affairs James Jeffrey had left a meeting at their offices.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman declined to comment on whether Jeffrey had visited the party offices.