The town lies at the base of what is often refereed to as the greater Hewraman region stretching across the Iran-Iraq border. Kurds in the city of Halabja generally speak Hewrami or Sorani, two different dialects of the Kurdish language.

Halabja poison gas attack
Halabja was occupied by Kurdish peshmerga supported by Iran in the final phase of the Iran-Iraq war. On 16 March 1988, after two days of conventional artillery attacks, Iraqi planes dropped gas canisters on the town.[1]

The town and surrounding district were attacked with bombs, artillery fire, and chemical weapons, the latter of which proved most devastating. At least 5,000 people died as an immediate result of the chemical attack and it is estimated that a further 7,000 people were injured or suffered long term illness.[2]

The attack is believed to have included the nerve agents Tabun, Sarin, and VX, as well as mustard gas. It is occasionally suggested that cyanide was also included among these chemical weapons, though this assertion has been cast into doubt, as cyanide is a natural byproduct of impure Tabun.[3][4][5] The attack on Halabja took place amidst the infamous Anfal campaign, in which Saddam Hussein violently suppressed Kurdish revolts during the Iran-Iraq war. Saddam Hussein ordered the use of chemical weapons in attacking up to 24 villages in Kurdish areas in April 1987.

Before the war ended the Iraqis moved in on the ground and completely destroyed the town.[6]

So much pain and suffering at the hands of the Ba’ath Party and its obscene leader Saddam Hussein, so many tortured and murdered and yet it seems there’s no time or opportunity to revisit the crimes.

It’s as if the traumas of the present already outweigh those of the past.

Baghdad is in crisis. The militia and insurgents are killing each other and each others families on a daily basis.

Political factions are lining up to secure control of oil fields that lie almost idle while the fighting intensifies.

Kurdish warlords meet privately with Shia politicians to notionally divide up spoils they don’t yet possess.

The infrastructure is paralysed, and essential utilities are in short supply almost everywhere.

What time can there be for a remote Kurdish town that was hideously bombed by the real weapons of mass destruction?

Halabja is the old tale of unfrgettable of human history .
Halabja, the everlasting tale which has been recorded in the book of ((human wonders)).
Halabja is the territory of the Kurd, whom as far back as they can remember has been the victims of the most prejudice and violent actions of the unjust Iraqi regime due to their kurdish beliefs.
Halabja is located in a vast area that both greenery and beauty as well as faith and resistance have grown and blossomed in it.
Halabja is the old tale of the knife in the back.
Halabja is the battleground of a regime, armed with complex warfare technology against the unarmed people of its own country; the battle of mustard gas with the lungs of the infant children; the battle of cyanide with the throbbing hearts of the unarmed men and women; the battle of fighter bombers with mothers who have hidden in their bosoms their beloved children, or men who have turned their bodies into barricades for their wives.
Halabja the innocent land whose cries of innocence were muffled in its own geographic boundaries and where the resistance of its own people was choked with black chemical clouds.