HALABJA

Halabja: translation

Halabja is a strategicIraqiKurdish city of some 70,000 located close to theIranianborder. In March 1988, as theIran-Iraq Warwas coming to its final climax, Iranian andPatriotic Union of Kurdistan(PUK) forces managed to capture the town. On 16 March 1988, Iraq retaliated with the largestchemical warfareattack since World War I. Some 5,000 Kurds died. The very name Halabja became notorious for chemical warfare and the refusal of the international community to help end Kurdish suffering.Saddam Husseinsoon stepped up his notoriousAnfalcampaign upon the war's conclusion.

Before this notoriety, Halabja was noted among Kurds for its bookstores. More recently, it has become a center ofIslamic fundamentalistactivity. It also houses a memorial museum to the chemical attack. On 17 March 2006, however, hundreds of stone-throwing protesters — most of them students from universities in the Kurdistan region home for vacation—beat back government guards, stormed, and then destroyed the museum. The riot was in protest against what was seen asKurdistan Regional Government(KRG) corruption and was a major challenge to the joint rule of theKurdistan Democratic Party(KDP) and PUK in the KRG.