Laila Kathum, testifying in the trial of 15 Saddam aides accused of crimes against humanity over the repression of the 1991 rebellion in southern Iraq, vented her fury against Ali Hassan al-Majid, widely known as "Chemical Ali".
Speaking from behind a curtain, Ms Kathum accused Saddam's army of arresting her relatives and said Majid himself had killed her two sons.
"The army detained my two sons, my brother and my niece on March 3, 1991," she told the court on the third day of the trial.
"Nine days later, my brother and niece were released and they told me that Ali Hasan al-Majid had executed my two sons."
"My niece Maitham told me that my two sons were executed by Ali Hassan al-Majid by tying their legs with a heavy brick and throwing them out of a helicopter into the Gulf."
Iraqi prosecutors allege the 15 accused oversaw the killing of up to 100,000 Shiites as Saddam's troops turned on them after their defeat at the hands of the US-led coalition forces in Kuwait in the first Gulf War.
The troops massacred people around the holy Shiite cities of Najaf and Karbala and in the Hilla and Basra regions.
Many Shiites who participated in the uprising say they had expected US forces to back them, but former US president George Bush instead ordered a halt at the Iraqi border, leaving the rebels at the mercy of Saddam's forces.
Another witness who also spoke behind the curtain and did not give his name told the court how he and his friend from Basra were tortured in prison.
He said the guards used to "count to 10 as they led us to baths".
"Anyone who missed the count and did not finish the bath used to be beaten."
He said the guards also used to "bet on who could punch us hard".
Witness Tahir Malhi Humadi said his son and daughter were killed when the army bombed his town near Basra.
"On March 19, 1991, the Republican Guards attacked and bombed my town and my son Walhan and daughter Majida were killed in the bombing," he said before chief judge Mohammed al-Khalifah al-Oreibi adjourned the trial to September 24.
Majid, Saddam's cousin and former defence minister, is the most high profile defendant in the trial.
He and two co-accused - Sultan Hashim al-Tai, also a former defence minister, and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, ex-armed forces deputy chief of operations - have already been sentenced to death at a previous trial for genocide and crimes against humanity.
An appeals court is reviewing the death sentences imposed on them for their role in the brutal massacres of Kurds during the so-called Anfal campaign of 1988, and is expected to give its decision soon.
If the panel upholds the sentence, the three will have to be executed within 30 days under Iraqi law. In that case, all charges against them in connection with the Shiite uprising would be dropped.
Officials say around 90 victims and witnesses are expected to testify against the defendants.
Since the March 2003 US-led invasion, experts have exhumed dozens of mass graves of victims killed in the uprising, and their reports are expected to be the key evidence during the trial.
Overnight, the Basra city council handed relatives the remains of 28 victims of the uprising who were killed and buried in a mass grave discovered recently.
"The remains were of 26 young men, a child who was less than two years old and a woman of 30," said Saleh al-Batat, a member of the council.
Shiites, a minority in the Muslim world, comprise 60 per cent of Iraq's population and were ruled for decades by Saddam's Sunni-led regime.
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