Remembering Halabja: The Day Chemical Weapons Killed 5,000 Kurds

Thirty-eight years ago, on March 16, 1988, the Iraqi air force under Saddam Hussein dropped chemical bombs on the Kurdish city of Halabja.

For five hours, mustard gas, nerve agents, and sarin rained down on civilians. More than five thousand men, women, and children were killed in a single day. Thousands more died in the years that followed from health complications and birth defects.

The attack came as the First Gulf War between Iraq and Iran was nearing its end. After Saddam’s fall in 2003, his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid—known as “Chemical Ali”—was convicted and sentenced to death for the massacre. He showed no remorse.

Today, Halabja’s two hundred thousand residents carry the memory. Survivors still bear the scars. Some are permanently disabled.

The pain has not faded. The world called it a war crime. But for the Kurds, it is a wound that will never fully heal.