Iraqi chemical weapons program

In violation of the <a href="/facts/Geneva_Protocol/ws7wUzjU">Geneva Protocol</a> of 1925, the <a href="/facts/Iraqi_Army/GfjLkB45">Iraqi Army</a> initiated two failed (1970–1974, 1974–1978) and one successful (1978–1991) offensive <a href="/facts/Chemical_weapon/AwXDDhAR">chemical weapons</a> (CW) programs. <a href="/facts/President_of_Iraq/XQkHEKzw">President</a> <a href="/facts/Saddam_Hussein/nHnSodgy">Saddam Hussein</a> (1937–2006) pursued the most extensive chemical program during the <a href="/facts/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War/DqD7W8vd">Iran–Iraq War</a> (1980–1988), when he waged <a href="/facts/Chemical_warfare/zT4t2DGk">chemical warfare</a> against Iran. He also used chemicals in 1988 in the <a href="/facts/Al-Anfal_Campaign/RErg1gah">Al-Anfal Campaign</a> against his civilian <a href="/facts/Iraqi_Kurds/EvMVDtEm">Kurdish</a> population and during a <a href="/facts/1991_uprisings_in_Iraq/WnzfNRCj">popular uprising in the south in 1991</a>.
Although efforts to acquire chemical weapons dated back to the early 1960s (pre-dating Hussein's regime), the Iraqis did not have stockpiles at the outbreak of the war with Iran in 1980. But in time, they began to develop an intensive research program to produce and store chemical weapons and used the war fields to test and perfect their chemical warfare prowess. Thus, as the war continued, Iraq's chemical warfare program expanded rapidly.
According to Iraq, while the majority of its <a href="/facts/Mustard_gas/e3qWU2Qp">mustard gas</a> was of 90–95% purity, it struggled to consistently produce nerve agents of high purity. The average purity of its <a href="/facts/Tabun_(nerve_agent)/HPf5hAL1">tabun</a> was 50–60%; production of it was abandoned in 1986 in favor of concentrating on <a href="/facts/Sarin/aYEK2f61">sarin</a>. The average quality of sarin and related products was in the range of 45–60%—sufficient for battlefield use in the Iran–Iraq War, but not for long-term storage. Efforts after the <a href="/facts/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War/DqD7W8vd">Iran–Iraq War</a> to develop <a href="/facts/VX_(nerve_agent)/71BKt6Gm">VX</a> were relatively unsuccessful, with purity of 18–41% considered insufficient for weaponization.
<a href="/facts/Iraqi_biological_weapons_program/7o463FDG">Iraq's biological warfare development</a> pursued a similar course, but by the time Iraqis were testing biological warheads (containing <a href="/facts/Anthrax/svk0t5G4">anthrax</a> and <a href="/facts/Botulinum_toxin/F2LTx09G">botulinum toxin</a>) in Iraq's deserts, the war had come to an end.

Iraqi chemical weapons program open-in-new

Iraqi chemical weapons program