Halabja massacre

Halabja massacre
Part of Anfal Campaign and Operation Zafar 7
Halabja Location of Halabja within Iraq
Location	Halabja, Kurdistan Region, Iraq
Coordinates	35°11′N 45°59′E / 35.183°N 45.983°E / 35.183; 45.983
Date	16 March 1988
Target	Kurds
Attack type	Chemical attack
Deaths	3,200–5,000
Injured	7,000–10,000
Perpetrator	Iraq

The Halabja massacre (Kurdish: کیمیابارانی ھەڵەبجە Kêmyabarana Helebce), also known as the Halabja chemical attack, was a massacre of Kurdish people that took place on 16 March 1988, during the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict in the closing days of the Iran–Iraq War in Halabja, Kurdistan, Iraq. The attack was part of the Al-Anfal Campaign in Kurdistan, as well as part of the Iraqi Army's attempt to repel the Iranian Operation Zafar 7. It took place 48 hours after the capture of the town by the Iranian Army. A United Nations (UN) medical investigation concluded that mustard gas was used in the attack, along with unidentified nerve agents.^[1]

The incident was the largest chemical weapons attack directed against a civilian-populated area in history,^[2] killing between 3,200 and 5,000 people and injuring 7,000 to 10,000 more, most of them civilians.^[3][4] Preliminary results from surveys of the affected region showed an increased rate of cancer and birth defects in the years afterward.^[5]

In 2010 the Halabja attack was officially defined as a genocidal massacre against the Kurdish people in Iraq under Saddam Hussein by the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal.^[6] The attack was also condemned as a crime against humanity by the Parliament of Canada.^[7] Ali Hassan al-Majid, a high-ranking Iraqi official who led the Anfal campaign, was found guilty of ordering the attack and subsequently executed in 2010.^[8]