Chemical Bombing of Halabja

TEHRAN (Defapress) - One of the most painful and tragic events during the imposed war of Iraq against the Islamic Republic of Iran was the chemical bombing of the city of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan. In this atrocity, thousands of Iraqi Kurdish citizens fell victim to the policies of the Ba'ath regime ruling Iraq and its organized genocide.

Halabja is a city in Iraqi Kurdistan, located 10–15 kilometers from the Iranian border and 225 kilometers northeast of Baghdad. The city lies in the Shahrizor region of Iraq. This bombing was part of a large-scale operation called the Anfal campaign, which was carried out against the residents of Kurdish areas in Iraq.

At 2 p.m. on March 15, 1988, just 2 days after the liberation of Halabja during Operation Valfajr 10, 50 Mirage bombers and French-made Super Étendard aircraft of the Ba'ath regime took off from the western horizon of Halabja's blue sky, turned south, and each dropped four 500-kilogram chemical bombs on the defenseless Kurdish people. Within minutes, a yellow cloud cast a shadow over Halabja, and a tragedy unparalleled since World War II unfolded, claiming the lives of thousands of defenseless and innocent Kurdish civilians in the embrace of the angel of death.