Halabja massacre

The Halabja massacre took place in <a href="/facts/Iraqi_Kurdistan/lY98mhLE">Iraqi Kurdistan</a> on 16 March 1988, when thousands of <a href="/facts/Kurds/kV90PCdW">Kurds</a> were killed by a large-scale <a href="/facts/Iraqi_chemical_weapons_program/tMwyzGfq">Iraqi chemical attack</a>. A targeted attack in <a href="/facts/Halabja/CtIIKsDG">Halabja</a>, it was carried out during the <a href="/facts/Anfal_campaign/RErg1gah">Anfal campaign</a>, which was led by Iraqi military officer <a href="/facts/Ali_Hassan_al-Majid/94mBFHYh">Ali Hassan al-Majid</a>. Two days before the attack, the city had been captured by <a href="/facts/Iran/24yukge8">Iran</a> as part of <a href="/facts/Operation_Zafar_7/ttH81oCx">Operation Zafar 7</a> of the <a href="/facts/Iran%25E2%2580%2593Iraq_War/DqD7W8vd">Iran–Iraq War</a>. Following the incident, the <a href="/facts/United_Nations/fgXLnmgT">United Nations</a> launched an investigation and concluded that <a href="/facts/Mustard_gas/e3qWU2Qp">mustard gas</a> as well as unidentified nerve agents had been used against Kurdish civilians. The <a href="/facts/Defense_Intelligence_Agency/lo2KYneo">United States Defense Intelligence Agency</a> initially blamed Iran for the attack, though the majority of evidence later revealed that <a href="/facts/Ba%2527athist_Iraq/lbHnSQBz">Iraq</a> had used the chemical weapons to bolster an ongoing military offensive against Iran, pro-Iranian Kurdish fighters, and ordinary Halabja residents.
To date, the Halabja massacre remains the largest chemical weapons attack directed against a civilian-populated region in human history, killing between 3,200 and 5,000 people and injuring 7,000 to 10,000 more. Preliminary results from surveys of the affected areas showed increased rates of <a href="/facts/Cancer/PVW6n1D0">cancer</a> and <a href="/facts/Birth_defect/ESfzQhTx">birth defects</a> in the years since the attack took place.
In 2010, the <a href="/facts/Supreme_Iraqi_Criminal_Tribunal/cuIT32dB">Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal</a> officially defined the Halabja chemical attack as a <a href="/facts/Genocidal_massacre/s2r6mrkS">genocidal massacre</a> against the Kurdish people during the time of Iraqi president <a href="/facts/Saddam_Hussein/nHnSodgy">Saddam Hussein</a>. That same year, it was also formally condemned by the <a href="/facts/Parliament_of_Canada/4YQfaTxt">Parliament of Canada</a>, which classified it as a <a href="/facts/Crimes_against_humanity/N4nRKINC">crime against humanity</a>. Al-Majid, who was captured during the <a href="/facts/2003_invasion_of_Iraq/V9zysaV1">2003 invasion of Iraq</a>, was put on trial and found guilty of ordering the attack; he was sentenced to death in June 2007 and executed by hanging in January 2010.

Halabja massacre open-in-new

Halabja massacre