Thousands die in Halabja gas attack March 16 1988

[Valin]

BBC

 

Thousands of people are reported to have been killed and many others injured in a poison gas attack on a Kurdish city in northern Iraq.

 

Up to 20 aircraft, said to include Iraqi Migs and Mirages, were seen overhead at around 1100 local time in Halabja.

 

According to experts, the chemicals dropped by the planes may have included mustard gas, the nerve agents sarin, tabun and VX and possibly cyanide.

 

(Snip)

 

Halabja witness tells about Saddams poison gas attack

 

Brussels, 15 March 2013 Ararat News (ANP) Ali Zalme from the Kurdish city of Halabja witnessed the tragic events on 16 March 1988, when 5,000 Kurds lost their life and more than 7,000 people were injured or suffered long-term illness from the poisonous gas attack of Saddam Husseins regime.

 

(Snip)

 

Lorin Sarkissian: You have witnessed the Halabja poisonous gas attack. Can you describe the days of 15 and 16 March 1988? How did the attack happen and what was the context of the events preceding the attack?

 

Ali Zalme: If we want to have a real picture of the Halabja massacre, we should understand all the aspects of this tragic event. First of all, the Halabja chemical attack came just before the end of the Iraq-Iran eight years war. Halabja was a symbolic city of the Kurdish recent resistance against the Baath regime in Iraq. Saddam and his brutal regime were looking for an opportunity to take revenge on the people of Halabja region (Hawraman and Sharazoor ). Particularly, just 10 months before the Halabja attack, on 13 May 1987 people from the city of Halabja and the surrounding areas including Khormal, Sirwan Hawraman and Sharazoor had rebelled, which is known as the May Uprising against the Baath government.

 

I and thousands of others, mostly young Kurdish students, came to the streets and demonstrated to stop the razing of Kurdish villages and rural area, while the regime was forcing the local people to live in controlled camps. For at least 5 hours we all celebrated the short freedom of Halabja, but soon Saddams army came back with assistance from other Iraqi army units and they were able to control the area. They used heavy artillery and a helicopter gunship. Many innocent people were killed and many others were injured. In addition the army randomly arrested hundreds of people, who were instantly killed by the Iraqi army and buried in mass graves near the town of Sayidsadq. Three of my cousins and one of my closest friends were among them.

 

Secondly, we also need to know that, prior to the Halabja attack, the Iranian intelligence forces were working with some high-ranking Iraqi army individuals, mostly Shias, to plan an attack against the Baath regime. Some Kurds also believed that, in the context of strong oppression from the Iraqi army and regime, an eventual cooperation with Iran would help them liberate Halabja. On 13 March 1988, the initial attack of Iranian artillery and soldiers started. It was midnight, when I saw many Iranian soldiers marching and they told us to stay at home until all the region of Halabja would be cleaned from the Iraqi regime. But the Iraqi regime started fighting back by using helicopters and jet fighters. People were confused. Civilians split, some people fled the area, but many others stayed in the liberated towns. My family decided to stay in the city until 8.00 pm on 15 March. Later we realized that we should leave the city and we were lucky to escape on time. The five-hour attack began early in the evening of 16 March 1988, following a series of random attacks using rocket and napalm, when Iraqi Mirage aircraft began dropping chemical bombs on Halabjas residential areas, far from the besieged Iraqi army base on the outskirts of the town.

 

An Iraqi aircraft conducted up to 20 bombings in sorties of seven to eight planes each; helicopters coordinating the operation were also seen. We all eye-witnessed clouds of smoke billowing upward white, black and then yellow, rising as a column about 50 metres in the air.....(Snip)

 

 

[Valin]