BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – The tribunal that will put Saddam Hussein on trial released a video yesterday showing the 68-year-old former dictator – looking drawn and tired but dressed in a pinstriped suit – being questioned about the killings of at least 50 Iraqis in a Shiite town.

The video was released as insurgents, many of whom are believed to be Saddam loyalists, launched four suicide car bombings and other attacks around Iraq that killed at least 14 people.

Another 22 Iraqis were injured after militants opened fire on authorities trying to evacuate the injured from one of the suicide blasts that killed three police officers and an Iraqi civilian in the northern city of Samara.

Already tense relations between the majority Shiites, who dominate the government and parliament, and the Sunni Arabs that many hold responsible for the insurgency soured further yesterday.

Strong disagreements also broke out over the number of representatives the once-powerful Sunni minority will have on a committee drafting the country’s new constitution.

Shiite lawmakers rejected calls for increasing Sunni representatives from 15 to 25 on the 55-member drafting committee, and Sunnis have renewed threats to boycott and sink the charter.

The wave of attacks in Baghdad, Samarra and Tikrit came as radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr met with the Russia ambassador and tribal chiefs from the insurgent hotbeds of Fallujah and Ramadi. Russia and al-Sadr fiercely opposed the war.

It was likely that the Iraqi Special Tribunal trying Saddam issued the video to counter widespread beliefs that its process was being controlled by Shiites and Kurds who dominate the government and the 275-member National Assembly.

Iraq’s Kurdish president and the Shiite-led government said last week that the ousted leader could appear before the tribunal within two months. They backtracked after complaints from Saddam’s legal team and the tribunal, which issued statements saying no trial date has been set.