anfal campaign

Tags: iraq

Gas attacks under Baath that killed over 200,000 Kurds

Has a ministry of martyrs and anfal in Erbil
Also interesting that the word “anfal” has been transformed into a general meaning for “genocide”

Prelude

8 campaigns in all
Sheikh Wasan and Balisan attacks are significant because they are the first fully documented account of chemical attacks on civilians by the Iraqi regime

meticulous looting and bombings of villages, cleared out with dynamite and bulldozers
No standard procedure for the collection of corpses
- either delivered to hospitals in Erbil, or ambulances would be summoned to collect the bodies from Einkawa
one of the first rounds of chemical bombings that occured
total: 225-400, death counts:
- 24 immediate deaths in balisan
- 103 deaths in Sheikh Wasan
- 8-9 in Raniya hospital
- 4 DOA on Erbil Emergency Hospital
- 64-142 deaths in the Amn detention center
- 2 busloads of men and boys disappeared, anywhere between 70-76
- “many children” on barren plain near Khalifan

Destruction of >703 kuridsh villages
- 219 in the erbil area
- 122 in Germian (south of kirkuk)
- 320 in the various districts around Suleimaniya
Main difference from anfal afterwards:
- 1987 campaign had forced relocations, such as Narin being relocated to nahya in the southern part of Germian
- Zerdow was warned before the village itself was cleared
  - Also paid compensation from the state, villagers were not physically harmed, token compensation was paid if family accepted relocation

First application of shoot-to-kill order with zero subsequent authorization signed by al-Majid

Designed to be carried out every decade, and was used by saddam to keep track of which families aligned themselves with the government