Halabja: The City Saddam Tried to Erase

Nisaba Media (Halabja, Kurdistan Region, Iraq)

In the far northeast of Iraq, about 240 kilometers from Baghdad, lies the city of Halabja, now the capital of its own governorate. In 1988, the city was home to approximately 80,000 Kurds living in the fertile Shahrizor Plain, bordered by the Sirwan River and mountain ranges such as Horman and Belambo. At an altitude of around 700 meters above sea level, Halabja was a mix of villages, pastures, and scattered homes, a border area directly adjacent to Iran.

This strategic location, historically important for trade and security, also made it vulnerable to brutal political conflicts. During the height of the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988), the Kurds found themselves trapped between the central Ba’athist government, led by Saddam Hussein, and Iran, which had dealings with some Kurdish factions. Amid this tense environment, Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam’s cousin, later nicknamed “Chemical Ali,” emerged as the orchestrator of scorched-earth policies against Kurdish villages.

Ba’ath and the Kurds: A Merciless Struggle

The Ba’ath regime never viewed the Kurds as equal citizens. While preaching national unity, it regarded Kurdish autonomy as a security threat. This hostility culminated during the Anfal Campaign in 1988, which destroyed thousands of Kurdish villages. Halabja, however, was no ordinary village—it was a city with political symbolism and a significant demographic presence.

On March 16, 1988, the regime decided to make Halabja an example of terror.

The Day of Massacre: A Sky Raining Death

That morning, life in Halabja went on as usual. Families roamed the markets, children played in the streets, unaware that the skies were about to turn lethal. By early afternoon, eight Iraqi warplanes flew overhead, dropping bombs laced with sarin, mustard gas, and cyanide—substances banned under international law. Within minutes, the city became a scene of mass death.

The bombs did not merely destroy buildings; they burned lungs, eyes, and skin. Bodies fell in the streets: women clutching their children, elderly men collapsed at their doorsteps, and dead birds and animals littered the paths.

Estimates suggest more than 5,000 people were killed within hours, mostly women, children, and the elderly, while between 7,000 and 10,000 were injured or permanently disabled. In the following months, thousands more died from illnesses and long-term chemical exposure.

Survivor Testimonies: Memories That Refuse to Fade

One survivor recounted: “I thought they were ordinary bombs. But suddenly, my eyes burned as if I were swallowing fire. My siblings fell one after another. There was no time to cry, only to escape the very air around me.”

Another woman said: “I woke hours later in what seemed like hell. I saw my parents and three children lying cold and lifeless. I wished I had died with them.”

These accounts illustrate that the tragedy was more than statistics—it was a human catastrophe etched into the collective Kurdish memory.

The World Reacts—Belatedly

Despite the horror, global voices of condemnation were slow to rise. Political interests, Cold War dynamics, and alliances with Iran delayed immediate action. Later, however, international courts recognized the attack as the largest chemical assault on a civilian population of a single ethnicity in modern history.

On December 23, 2005, a Dutch court sentenced businessman Frans van Anraat to 15 years in prison for supplying chemical materials used in the attack. The court also confirmed that Saddam Hussein committed genocide. In Iraq, Saddam and Ali Hassan al-Majid were formally charged with crimes against humanity. Saddam was executed in December 2006 for the Dujail case, while “Chemical Ali” was executed in 2010.

A City Rising from Ashes

What became of Halabja itself? For decades, the city existed in administrative limbo between Baghdad and Erbil. It received little reconstruction support, and its residents suffered from unemployment and lack of services.