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87-499: Iraqi invasion of Iran (1980) Stalemate (1981) Iranian offensives to free Iranian territory (1981–82) Iranian offensives in Iraq (1982–84) Iranian offensives in Iraq (1985–87) Final stages (1988) Tanker War International incidents Main phase Later phase The Anfal campaign was a counterinsurgency operation which was carried out by Ba'athist Iraq from February to September 1988 during

174-589: A depression in the desert about 120 km southwest of Samawah , in the Muthanna Governorate . Nugra Salman held an estimated 5,000 to 8,000 prisoners during the Anfal campaign. Another detention camp was Topzawa near an army base near the highway leading out of Kirkuk. Arabization , another major element of al-Anfal, was a tactic used by Saddam Hussein's regime to drive pro-insurgent populations out of their homes in villages and cities like Kirkuk , which are in

261-618: A monument and sculpture in Garmian region for Anfal. Iraqi invasion of Iran lraqi short-term operational success [REDACTED] Iranian Armed Forces [REDACTED] Iraqi Armed Forces Iraqi invasion of Iran (1980) Stalemate (1981) Iranian offensives to free Iranian territory (1981–82) Iranian offensives in Iraq (1982–84) Iranian offensives in Iraq (1985–87) Final stages (1988) Tanker War International incidents The Iraqi invasion of Iran began on 22 September 1980, sparking

348-592: A crackdown to restore Saddam's control. The execution of Iraq's most senior Ayatollah, and "reports that Saddam's secret police had raped al-Sadr's sister in al-Sadr's presence, had set his beard alight, and then dispatched him with a nail gun" caused outrage throughout the Islamic world, especially among Iraqi Shias. The Shias' repeated calls for the overthrow of the Ba'ath party and the support they allegedly received from Iran's new government led Saddam to increasingly perceive Iran as

435-581: A full-scale invasion of Iran on 22 September 1980. The Iraqi Air Force launched surprise air strikes on ten Iranian airfields with the objective of destroying the Iranian Air Force , mimicking the Israeli Air Force in the Six-Day War . The attack failed to damage Iranian Air Force significantly: it damaged some of Iran's airbase infrastructure, but failed to destroy a significant number of aircraft:

522-444: A group of two or three low-flying F-4 Phantoms could hit targets almost anywhere in Iraq. Meanwhile, Iraqi air attacks on Iran were repulsed by Iran's F-14 Tomcat interceptor fighter jets, using Phoenix missiles , which downed a dozen of Iraq's Soviet-built fighters in the first two days of battle. The Iranian regular military, police forces, volunteer Basij, and Revolutionary Guards all conducted their operations separately; thus,

609-641: A large scale." Days before the Iraqi invasion and in the midst of rapidly escalating cross-border skirmishes, Iraqi military intelligence again reiterated on 14 September that "the enemy deployment organization does not indicate hostile intentions and appears to be taking on a more defensive mode." Iraq soon after expropriated the properties of 70,000 civilians believed to be of Iranian origin and expelled them from its territory. Many, if not most, of those expelled were in fact Arabic-speaking Iraqi Shias who had little to no family ties with Iran. This caused tensions between

696-676: A lawsuit under the Genocide Convention against Iraq at the International Court of Justice . It convinced the United States Department of State 's legal bureau that Anfal met the legal criteria for genocide. In December 2005, a court in The Hague convicted Frans van Anraat of complicity in war crimes for his role in selling chemical weapons to the Iraqi government. He was given a 15-year sentence. The court also ruled that

783-685: A pretext. A successful invasion of Iran would enlarge Iraq's petroleum reserves and make Iraq the region's dominant power. With Iran engulfed in chaos, an opportunity for Iraq to annex the oil-rich Khuzestan Province materialized. In addition, Khuzestan's large ethnic Arab population would allow Saddam to pose as a liberator for Arabs from Persian rule. Fellow Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait (despite being hostile to Iraq) encouraged Iraq to attack, as they feared that an Islamic revolution would take place within their own borders. Certain Iranian exiles also helped convince Saddam that if he invaded,

870-400: A regional autonomy for Iraqi Kurdistan was achieved in 1991. Following, most survivors returned, and began to reconstruct the villages. In Kurdish society, the Anfal survivors are known as Anfal mothers ( Kurdish : Daykan-î Enfal) , Anfal relatives ( Kurdish : Kes-u-kar-î Enfal) or Anfal widows ( Kurdish : Bewajin-î Enfal) . Human Rights Watch unsuccessfully attempted to attract support for

957-494: A revival in their fortunes. Kurdish fighters ( peshmerga ) fought a guerrilla war against the Iraqi government and established effective control over the Kurdish-inhabited mountainous areas of northern Iraq. As the war went on and Iran counterattacked into Iraq, the peshmerga gained ground in most Kurdish-inhabited rural areas while also infiltrating towns and cities. In 1983, after the joint KDP-Iranian capture of Haj Omran ,

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1044-453: A theater around 1,154 square kilometres (445 sq. mi.). The villages of Gwezeela, Chalawi, Haladin and Yakhsamar were attacked with poison gas. During mid March, the PUK, in an alliance with Iranian troops and other Kurdish factions, captured Halabja. This led to the poison gas attack on Halabja on 16 March 1988, during which several thousand Kurdish people were killed, most of them civilians. During

1131-531: A threat that, if ignored, might one day overthrow him; he thus used the attacks as pretext for attacking Iran that September, though skirmishes along the Iran–Iraq border had already become a daily event by May that year. Despite Iran's bellicose rhetoric, Iraqi military intelligence reported in July 1980 that "it is clear that, at present, Iran has no power to launch wide offensive operations against Iraq, or to defend on

1218-519: A weakened Iran's consolidation of the Islamic Revolution , forcibly reclaimed territories in Zain al-Qaws and Saïf Saad ; these had been promised to Iraq under the terms of the 1975 Algiers Agreement , but were never actually transferred. Both Iran and Iraq later declared the treaty as null and void, doing so on 14 September and 17 September, respectively. As a result, the only outstanding dispute along

1305-457: A whole. The Iraqi government sought to take control of the entire Shatt al-Arab in a rapid and decisive military campaign, believing that Iraq's victory in the broader conflict would humiliate Iran and lead to Khomeini's downfall, or, at the very least, thwart the new Iranian government's attempts to spread Khomeinism throughout the Muslim world . Saddam had also aspired to annex Khuzestan and saw

1392-515: Is that which was published by HRW. Human Rights Watch's 1993 report on Anfal was based on Iraqi documents, examination of grave sites, and interviews with Kurdish survivors. In 1993, the United States government collected 18 tons of Iraqi government documents which were captured by the Peshmerga during the 1991 uprising and airlifted them to the United States. In those files, HRW conducted research on

1479-632: The Directorate of General Security . Many Iraqi Arabs reject that any mass killings of Kurds occurred during the Anfal campaign. On 28 February 2013, the British House of Commons formally recognized the Anfal as genocide following a campaign which was led by Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi , who is of Kurdish descent . Monuments and Statues In 2014, a German organization in Sulaimani agreed with Kurdish artist and sculptor Shwan Kamal to build

1566-504: The Garmian region east of Suleimanya was targeted. In this campaign, many women and children disappeared. The only village attacked with chemical weapons was Tazashar. Many were lured to come towards the Iraqi forces due to an amnesty announced through a loudspeaker of a mosque in Qader Karam from 10 to 12 April. The announced amnesty was a trap, and many who surrendered were detained. Some civilians were able to bribe Kurdish collaborators of

1653-705: The Human Rights Watch produced its reports, were not enough to establish "a sufficient degree of certainty for a finding of fact in respect of genocide can be derived". In an interview broadcast on Iraqi television on 6 September 2005, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani , a Kurdish politician of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan , said that judges had directly extracted confessions from Saddam Hussein that he had ordered mass killings and other crimes during his regime and that he deserves to die. Two days later, Saddam's lawyer denied that he had confessed. In June 2006,

1740-590: The Iran–Iraq War , and lasted until 5 December 1980. Ba'athist Iraq believed that Iran would not respond effectively due to internal socio-political turmoil caused by the country's Islamic Revolution one year earlier. However, Iraqi troops faced fierce Iranian resistance, which stalled their advance into western Iran . In two months, the invasion came to a halt after Iraq occupied more than 25,900 square kilometres (10,000 sq mi) of Iranian territory. On 10 September 1980, Iraq, hoping to take advantage of

1827-499: The Iran–Iraq border at the time of the Iraqi invasion on 22 September was the question of whether Iranian ships would fly Iraqi flags and pay navigation fees to Iraq while sailing through a stretch of the Shatt al-Arab spanning several kilometres. On 22 September, Iraqi aircraft pre-emptively bombarded ten Iranian airfields in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to gain aerial superiority on

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1914-541: The Iraqi Special Tribunal announced that Saddam Hussein and six co-defendants would face trial on 21 August 2006 in relation to the Anfal campaign. In December 2006, Saddam was put on trial for the genocide during Operation Anfal. The trial for the Anfal campaign was still underway on 30 December 2006, when Saddam Hussein was executed for his role in the unrelated Dujail massacre . The Anfal trial recessed on 21 December 2006, and when it resumed on 8 January 2007,

2001-508: The Iraqis and Arabs everywhere, we tell those Persian cowards and dwarfs who try to avenge al-Qadisiyah that the spirit of al-Qadisiyah as well as the blood and honor of the people of al-Qadisiyah who carried the message on their spearheads are greater than their attempts. In 1979–1980, anti-Ba'ath riots arose in the Iraq's Shia areas by groups who were working toward an Islamic revolution in their country. Saddam and his deputies believed that

2088-545: The Iraqi–Kurdish conflict at the end of the Iran–Iraq War . The campaign targeted rural Kurds because its purpose was to eliminate Kurdish rebel groups and Arabize strategic parts of the Kirkuk Governorate . The Ba’athist regime committed atrocities on the local Kurdish population, mostly civilians. The Iraqi forces were led by Ali Hassan al-Majid , on the orders of President Saddam Hussein . The campaign's name

2175-615: The Islamic Dawa Party a capital offense at the end of March, Shia militants assassinated 20 Ba'ath officials, and Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz was almost assassinated on 1 April; Aziz survived, but 11 students were killed in the attack. Three days later, the funeral procession being held to bury the students was bombed. Iraqi Information Minister Latif Nusseif al-Jasim also barely survived assassination by Shia militants. In April 1980, Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister Amina al-Sadr were executed as part of

2262-520: The Muslim conquest of Persia while promoting his country's position against Iran in the context of a looming war. On 2 April 1980, during a visit to al-Mustansiriya University in the city of Baghdad , he drew parallels to the 7th-century Battle of al-Qadisiyyah , in which the Rashidun Caliphate secured a decisive victory over the Sasanian Empire : In your name, brothers, and on behalf of

2349-486: The Osirak nuclear reactor near Baghdad. By 1 October, Baghdad had been subjected to eight air attacks. In response, Iraq launched aerial strikes against Iranian targets. The people of Iran, rather than turning against their still-weak Islamic Republic, rallied around their country. An estimated 200,000 fresh troops had arrived at the front by November, many of them ideologically committed volunteers. Though Khorramshahr

2436-741: The pan-Arabism espoused by Iraq's Ba'athists. Saddam's primary interest in war may have stemmed from his desire to right the supposed "wrong" of the Algiers Agreement , in addition to finally achieving his desire of annexing Khuzestan and becoming the regional superpower. Saddam's goal was to replace Egypt as the "leader of the Arab world" and to achieve hegemony over the Persian Gulf. He saw Iran's increased weakness due to revolution, sanctions, and international isolation. Saddam had invested heavily in Iraq's military, buying large amounts of weaponry from

2523-466: The prosecution ; whose claims couldn't be cross-analyzed by the defendants. Both within and outside Iraq, the trials by the Special Tribunal have been widely dubbed as a "show parade" designed to execute Saddam and deemed as illegitimate by numerous lawyers and human rights organizations. There have been few publications about the Anfal campaign and as of 2008, the only comprehensive account of it

2610-458: The 17–18 April 1988 from Iran in the Iran–Iraq War . Major poisonous gas attacks were perpetrated in Askar and Goptapa. Again it was announced an amnesty was issued, which turned out to be false. Many of the ones who surrendered were arrested. Men were separated from the women. In these three consecutive attacks between 15 May and 16 August 1988, the valleys of Rawandiz and Shaqlawa were targeted, and

2697-638: The 1960s during the First Iraqi–Kurdish War , when General Khaleel Jassim was in the command of these regiments and associated them with many Iraqi Army operations against the Kurd rebels, specially in Amadiya in 1965 and Rawandiz 1966. During the al-Anfal campaign , the military campaign of genocide and looting commanded by Ali Hassan al-Majid , al-Majid's orders informed jash units that taking cattle, sheep, goats, money, weapons and even Kurdish women

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2784-438: The 1975 Algiers Agreement null and void... This river [Shatt al-Arab]...must have its Iraqi-Arab identity restored as it was throughout history in name and in reality with all the disposal rights emanating from full sovereignty over the river...We in no way wish to launch war against Iran. Despite Saddam's claim that Iraq did not want war with Iran, the next day his forces proceeded to attack Iranian border posts in preparation for

2871-518: The Anfal 7 attack, the valleys were under the control of the Iraqi government. The last Anfal was aimed at the region controlled by the KDP named Badinan and took place from 25 August to 6 September 1988. In this campaign, the villages of Wirmeli, Barkavreh, Bilejane, Glenaska, Zewa Shkan, Tuka and Ikmala were targeted with chemical attacks. After tens of thousands of Kurds fled to Turkey, the Iraqi Army blocked

2958-676: The Anfal campaign in collaboration with United States federal government agencies such as the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Defense Intelligence Agency , and the Defense Department . The US government provided Arabic translators and CD ROM scanners. HRW accepted the US government role under the condition that personnel involved worked under its direction. The files include documents which were collected by

3045-709: The Arab revolts, the Revolutionary Guards would be drawn out of Tehran, leading to a counter-revolution in Iran that would cause Khomeini's government to collapse and thus ensure Iraqi victory. However, rather than turning against the revolutionary government as experts had predicted, Iran's people (including Iranian Arabs) rallied in support of the country and put up a stiff resistance. By September, skirmishes between Iran and Iraq were increasing in number. Iraq began to grow bolder, both shelling and launching border incursions into disputed territories . Malovany describes

3132-485: The Iraqi Air Force was only able to strike in depth with a few MiG-23BN , Tu-22 , and Su-20 aircraft. Three MiG-23s managed to attack Tehran, striking its airport , but destroyed only a few aircraft. The next day, Iraq launched a ground invasion along a front measuring 644 km (400 mi) in three simultaneous attacks. Of Iraq's six divisions that were invading by ground, four were sent to Khuzestan, which

3219-525: The Iraqi Army and fled to Laylan or Shorsh. Before the Anfal campaign, the mainly rural Garmian region counted over 600 villages around the towns of Kifri , Kalar and Darbandikhan . Anfal 4 took place between 3–8 May 1988 in the valley of the Little Zab , which forms the border of the provinces of Erbil and Kirkuk . The morale of the Iraqi army was on the rise due to the capture of the Faw Peninsula on

3306-451: The Iraqi Army had "liberated" all disputed territories within Iran. It should be carefully noted that Malovany, an Israeli ex-intelligence analyst writing years later, said the enclaves were not completely seized until 21 September. With the conclusion of the "liberating operations", on 17 September, in a statement addressed to Iraq's parliament, Saddam stated: The frequent and blatant Iranian violations of Iraqi sovereignty...have rendered

3393-560: The Iraqi Army's seizure of the Zayn al-Qaws enclave, near Khanaqin (by 6th Armoured Division , 2nd Corps); the Saif Sa'ad enclave ( 10th Armoured Division ) and the Maysan enclave between Shib and Fakkeh ( 1st Mechanised Division , 3rd Corps). Iran responded by shelling several Iraqi border towns and posts, though this did little to alter the situation on the ground. By 10 September, Saddam declared that

3480-588: The Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who opposed capital punishment. The Anfal trial was widely criticized for its methodical defects marked by various acts of political meddling from the Iraqi government . These involved the sacking of its presiding judge in September 2006 by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ; who perceived the judge as biased towards defendants. Human Rights Watch stated that many of

3567-458: The Iraqi government arrested 8,000 Barzani men and executed them. During the battle for Haj Omran, the Iraqi government also used gas weapons for the first time against both Kurdish and Iranian forces. "Al Anfal", literally meaning the spoils (of war) , was used to describe the military campaign of extermination and looting against the Kurds. It is also the title of the eighth sura , or chapter, of

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3654-599: The Iraqi invading forces did not face coordinated resistance. However, on 24 September, the Iranian Navy attacked Basra, Iraq , destroying two oil terminals near the Iraqi port Faw , which reduced Iraq's ability to export oil. The Iranian ground forces (primarily consisting of the Revolutionary Guard) retreated to the cities, where they set up defences against the invaders. On 30 September, Iran's air force launched Operation Scorch Sword , striking and badly damaging

3741-930: The Iraqis were repelled. On 14 October, the Iraqis launched a second offensive. The Iranians launched a controlled withdrawal from the city, street by street. By 24 October, most of the city was captured, and the Iranians evacuated across the Karun River . Some partisans remained, and fighting continued until 10 November. Though the Iraqi air invasion surprised the Iranians, the Iranian air force retaliated with an attack against Iraqi military bases and infrastructure in Operation Kaman 99 ( Bow 99). Groups of F-4 Phantom and F-5 Tiger fighter jets attacked targets throughout Iraq, such as oil facilities, dams, petrochemical plants, and oil refineries, and included Mosul Airbase , Baghdad , and

3828-451: The Islamic Revolution as an opportunity to do so, seeking to increase his country's prestige and power in the Arab world. To this end, his administration hoped that Iraq, as an Arab-majority country, could successfully exploit Arab separatism in Khuzestan to undermine Iran from within. In practice, these objectives failed to materialize and the majority of Iranian Arabs were indifferent to

3915-520: The Kirkuk oil refinery. Iraq was taken by surprise at the strength of the retaliation, as Iran took few losses while the Iraqis took heavy defeats and economic disruption. The Iranian force of AH-1J SeaCobra helicopter gunships began attacks on the advancing Iraqi divisions, along with F-4 Phantoms armed with Maverick missiles ; they destroyed numerous armoured vehicles and impeded the Iraqi advance, though not completely halting it. Iran had discovered that

4002-613: The Kurdish parties PUK and KDP, both parties hold the ultimate ownership of the documents that were airlifted to the US. In exchange for access to the National Archives documents, HRW agreed to help the United States government find information about Iraqi atrocities. Joost Hiltermann, HRW's lead researcher on Anfal, referred to these files as "the good stuff…material to smear the enemy with". Kanan Makiya , an Iraqi–American academic and pro-Iraq War advocate, criticized HRW for promising that

4089-524: The PUK was based on extrapolation and "has no empirical relation to actual disappearances or killings", though it "has assumed mythical status among Kurds". In 1995, the Committee for the Defence of Anfal Victims' Rights released a report documenting 63,000 disappeared and stating that the entire death toll was lower than 70,000, with almost all these deaths occurring in the area of Anfal III. According to Hiltermann,

4176-632: The Qur'an which describes the victory of 313 followers of the new Muslim faith over almost 900 non-Muslims at the Battle of Badr in 624 AD. According to Randal, Jash (Kurdish collaborators with the Baathists) were told that taking cattle, sheep, goats, money, weapons and even women was halal (religiously permitted or legal). The Anfal campaign began in February 1988 and continued until August or September and included

4263-481: The Soviet Union and France. Between 1973 and 1980 alone, Iraq purchased an estimated 1,600 tanks and APCs and over 200 Soviet-made aircraft. By 1980, Iraq possessed 242,000 soldiers (second only to Egypt in the Arab world), 2,350 tanks and 340 combat aircraft. Watching the powerful Iranian army that frustrated him in 1974–1975 disintegrate, he saw an opportunity to attack, using the threat of Islamic Revolution as

4350-459: The United States invasion of Iraq in 2003, mass graves were discovered in parts of western Iraq that had been under Ba'athist control. The event has become an important element in the constitution of Kurdish national identity . The Kurdistan Regional Government has set aside 14 April as a day of remembrance for the Al-Anfal campaign. In Sulaymanya a museum was established in the former prison of

4437-511: The attacks had different successes. The Anfal 5 failed completely; therefore, two more attacks were necessary to gain Iraqi government control over the valleys. The Peshmerga commander of the region, Kosrat Abdullah , was well prepared for a long siege with stores of ammunition and food. He also reached an agreement with the Kurdish collaborators of the Iraqi Army so that the civilians could flee. Hiran, Balisan, Smaquli, Malakan, Shek Wasan, Ware, Seran and Kaniba were attacked with poisonous gas. After

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4524-496: The battlefield. On the next day, Iraqi troops crossed the international border in strength and advanced into Iran in three simultaneous thrusts along a front of approximately 644 kilometres (400 mi). Of Iraq's six divisions that were invading by land, four were sent to Iran's oil-rich Khuzestan in order to cut off Iranian access to the Shatt al-Arab and establish a territorial security zone. Iraqi president Saddam Hussein presented

4611-559: The central front, the Iraqis occupied Mehran , advanced towards the foothills of the Zagros Mountains , and were able to block the traditional Tehran–Baghdad invasion route by securing territory forward of Qasr-e Shirin, Iran . Two of the four Iraqi divisions which invaded Khuzestan, one mechanised and one armoured, operated near the southern end and began a siege of the strategically important port cities of Abadan and Khorramshahr . The other two divisions, both armoured, secured

4698-508: The charges were "vague" and concluded that the defendants were unable to bring their witnesses due to safety issues within Iraq . Video interactions from witnesses of the defendants were also denied by the court; thus hampering the defendants' ability to challenge the claims of the prosecutors. The trial was marked by absence of fundamental judicial proceedings , such as the murder of three defense lawyers and ample utilization of anonymous witnesses by

4785-542: The death toll "cannot conceivably be less than 50,000, and it may well be twice that number". This figure was based on an earlier survey by the Sulaymaniyah –based Kurdish organization Committee for the Defence of Anfal Victims' Rights. According to HRW, Kurdish leaders met with Iraqi government official Ali Hassan al-Majid in 1991 and mentioned a figure of 182,000 deaths; the latter reportedly replied that "it couldn't have been more than 100,000". The 182,000 figure provided by

4872-698: The end of 1980, Iraq had destroyed about 500 Western -built Iranian tanks and captured 100 others. Jash (term) Kurds who collaborated with the Ba'ath Government , Kurds in the Village Guards , the Kurdistan BMC , and the Kermanshah NAC are exampled of what would be considered "jash" by some Kurds. The Light regiments were first established in the 1940s, during the 1943 Barzani revolt in northern Iraq, then it flourished and start to take an important role in

4959-564: The evidences from the documents were not sufficient to establish the charge of genocide. Although many Iraqi Arabs reject that there were any mass killings of Kurdish civilians during Anfal, the event is an important element constituting Kurdish national identity . Following the Iraqi invasion of Iran in 1980, the rival Kurdish opposition parties in Iraq—the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) as well as other smaller Kurdish parties—experienced

5046-593: The fighting around Susangerd. On 22 September, a prolonged battle began in the city of Khorramshahr, eventually leaving 7,000 dead on each side. Reflecting the bloody nature of the struggle, Iranians came to call Khorramshahr "City of Blood" ( خونین شهر , Khunin shahr ). The battle began with Iraqi air raids against key points and mechanised divisions advancing on the city in a crescent-like formation. They were slowed by Iranian air attacks and Revolutionary Guard troops with recoilless rifles , rocket-propelled grenades , and Molotov cocktails . The Iranians flooded

5133-542: The figure of 100,000, although considered too low by many Kurds, is probably higher than the actual number of deaths. In September 1988, the Iraqi government was satisfied with its achievements. The male population between 15 and 50 had either been killed or fled. The Kurdish resistance fled to Iran and was no longer a threat to Iraq. An amnesty was issued, and the detained women, children and elderly were released but not permitted to return. They were sent into camps known as mujamm'at where they lived under military rule until

5220-513: The first Anfal. As a result of the attack, the majority of the population in the Qara Dagh region fled in the direction of Suleimanya. Many fugitives were detained by the Iraqi forces, and the men were separated from the women. The men were not seen again. The women were transported to camps. The population that managed to flee, fled to the Garmia region. In the next Anfal campaign from 7 to 20 April 1988,

5307-456: The fledgling Islamic republic would quickly collapse. In particular, Saddam was assured of Saudi support for an invasion of Iran during his August 1980 visit to Saudi Arabia. In 1979–1980, Iraq was the beneficiary of an oil boom that saw it take in US$ 33 ;billion, which allowed the government to invest heavily in both civilian and military projects. On several occasions, Saddam alluded to

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5394-517: The intent to destroy the Kurdish population of Iraq". During another trial involving the legal appeal of Van Anraat, The Hague appellate court upheld the previous conviction of his complicity in war crimes; but ruled that actions of Iraqi military during Anfal operations cannot be regarded as constituting a " genocide ". The verdict of the Hague Court of Appeal stated in 9 May 2007 that tons of Iraqi documents collected by US government, based on which

5481-462: The invasion as a strategically defensive measure to blunt the edge of Iranian politician Ruhollah Khomeini , who had risen to power as Iran's " Supreme Leader " and was attempting to export the Islamic Revolution to the Arab world . Saddam, as a secularist and an Arab nationalist , perceived Iran's Shia Islamism as an immediate and existential threat to his Ba'ath Party and thereby to Iraqi society as

5568-586: The killing of thousands of Kurds in Iraq in the 1980s was indeed an act of genocide. In the 1948 Genocide Convention , the definition of genocide is "acts committed with the intent to destroy , in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". The Dutch court said that it was considered "legally and convincingly proven that the Kurdish population meets the requirement under the Genocide Conventions as an ethnic group . The court has no other conclusion than that these attacks were committed with

5655-440: The lure of inexpensive housing. Another part of the Arabisation campaign was the census of October 1987. Citizens who failed to turn up for the October 1987 census were no longer recognized as Iraqi citizens. Most of the Kurdish population who learned that a census was taking place did not take part in the census. Precise figures of Anfal victims do not exist due to lack of records. In its 1993 report, Human Rights Watch wrote that

5742-425: The marsh areas around the city, forcing the Iraqis to traverse through narrow strips of land. Iraqi tanks launched attacks with no infantry support, and many tanks were lost to Iranian anti-tank teams. However, by 30 September, the Iraqis had managed to clear the Iranians from the outskirts of the city. The next day, the Iraqis launched infantry and armoured attacks into the city. After heavy house-to-house fighting ,

5829-441: The mountains. The Jash forces frequently made false promises of amnesty and safe passage. Iraqi state media extensively covered the Anfal campaign using its official name. Approximately 1,200 Kurdish villages were destroyed during the Anfal campaign. To many Iraqis, Anfal was presented as an extension of the ongoing Iran–Iraq War , although its victims were overwhelmingly Kurdish civilians. In March 1987, Ali Hassan al-Majid

5916-426: The planned invasion. Iraq's 7th Mechanised and 4th Infantry Divisions attacked the Iranian border posts leading to the cities of Fakkeh and Bostan , opening the route for future armoured thrusts into Iran. Weakened by internal chaos, Iran was unable to repel the attacks; which in turn led to Iraq becoming more confident in its military edge over Iran and prompting them to believe in a quick victory. Iraq launched

6003-437: The records proved genocide. He warned that the records contained neither "smoking guns" nor do they contain records of the "explosive nature" as HRW claimed. Furthermore, he said that certain documents that seemed incriminating could have been planted by Kurdish rebels. After the invasion of Iraq, Makiya said in December 2003 that the Iraqi document archives contained no "smoking gun" to convict Saddam Hussein of war crimes. After

6090-488: The remaining charges against Saddam Hussein were dropped. Six co-defendants continued to stand trial for their roles in the Anfal campaign. On 23 June 2007, Ali Hassan al-Majid , and two co-defendants, Sultan Hashem Ahmed and Hussein Rashid Mohammed , were convicted of genocide and related charges and sentenced to death by hanging . Another two co-defendants ( Farhan Jubouri and Saber Abdel Aziz al-Douri ) were sentenced to life imprisonment , and one ( Taher Tawfiq al-Ani )

6177-436: The riots had been inspired by the Iranian Revolution and instigated by Iran's government. On 10 March 1980, when Iraq declared Iran's ambassador persona non-grata , and demanded his withdrawal from Iraq by 15 March, Iran replied by downgrading its diplomatic ties to the charge d'affaires level, and demanded that Iraq withdraw their ambassador from Iran. In April 1980, in response to the Ba'ath Party declaring membership in

6264-489: The route to Turkey on 26 August 1988. The population who did not manage to flee was arrested, and the men were separated from the women and children. The men were executed, and the women and children were brought to camps. Detention camps were established to accommodate thousands of prisoners. Dibs was a detention camp for women and children and located near an army training facility for the Iraqi commando forces. From Dibs, groups of detainees were transferred to Nugra Salman in

6351-509: The second Anfal from 22 March and 2 April 1988, the Qara Dagh region, including Bazian and Darbandikhan, was targeted in the Suleimanya governorate . Again several villages were attacked with poison gas. Villages attacked with poisonous gas were Safaran, Sewsenan, Belekjar, Serko and Meyoo. The attacks began on 22 March after Newruz , surprising the Peshmerga. Although of shorter duration, Peshmerga suffered more severe casualties in this attack than

6438-408: The southern portion of the country. When Iraq laid siege to Abadan and dug its troops in around the city, it was unable to blockade the port, which allowed Iran to resupply Abadan by sea. Iraq's strategic reserves had been depleted, and by now it lacked the power to go on any major offensives until nearly the end of the war. On 7 December, Hussein announced that Iraq was going on the defensive. By

6525-447: The territory bounded by the cities of Khorramshahr , Ahvaz , Susangerd , and Musian . Iraqi hopes of an uprising by the ethnic Arabs of Khuzestan failed to materialise, as most of the ethnic Arabs remained loyal to Iran. The Iraqi troops advancing into Iran in 1980 were described by Patrick Brogan as "badly led and lacking in offensive spirit". The first known chemical weapons attack by Iraq on Iran probably took place during

6612-540: The two nations to increase further. Iraq also helped to instigate riots among Iranian Arabs in Khuzestan province, supporting them in their labor disputes, and turning uprisings into armed battles between Iran's Revolutionary Guards and militants, killing over 100 on both sides. At times, Iraq also supported armed rebellion by the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran in Kurdistan. The most notable of such events

6699-513: The use of ground offensives , aerial bombing , chemical warfare , systematic destruction of settlements , mass deportation and firing squads. The campaign was headed by Ali Hassan al-Majid who was a cousin of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from Saddam's hometown of Tikrit . The Iraqi Army was supported by Kurdish collaborators whom the Iraqi government armed, the so-called Jash forces, who led Iraqi troops to Kurdish villages that often did not figure on maps as well as to their hideouts in

6786-530: The valuable oil field areas, and relocate them in the southern parts of Iraq. The campaign used heavy population redistribution , most notably in Kirkuk, the results of which now plague negotiations between Iraq's Shi'a United Iraqi Alliance and the Kurdish Kurdistani Alliance . Saddam's Ba'athist regime built several public housing facilities in Kirkuk as part of his "Arabisation", shifting poor Arabs from Iraq's southern regions to Kirkuk with

6873-477: Was acquitted on the prosecution's demand. Al-Majid was charged with war crimes , crimes against humanity and genocide . He was convicted in June 2007 and was sentenced to death . His appeal for the death sentence was rejected on 4 September 2007. He was sentenced to death for the fourth time on 17 January 2010 and was hanged eight days later, on 25 January 2010. Sultan Hashem Ahmed was not hanged due to opposition of

6960-520: Was appointed secretary-general of the Ba'ath Party's Northern Bureau, which included Iraqi Kurdistan . Anfal, officially conducted in 1988, had eight phases (Anfal 1–Anfal 8) altogether, seven of which targeted areas controlled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan . The Kurdish Democratic Party -controlled areas in the northwest Iraqi Kurdistan , were the target of the Final Anfal operation in late August and early September 1988. The first Anfal stage

7047-567: Was conducted between 23 February and 18 March 1988. It started with artillery and air strikes in the early hours of 23 February 1988. Then, several hours later, there were attacks at the Jafali Valley headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan near the Iranian border, and the command centers in Sargallu and Bargallu. There was heavy resistance by the Peshmerga . The battles were conducted in

7134-401: Was finally captured, the battle had delayed the Iraqis enough to allow the large-scale deployment of the Iranian military. In November, Saddam ordered his forces to advance towards Dezful and Ahvaz, and lay siege to both cities. However, the Iraqi offensive had been badly damaged by Iranian militias and air power. Iran's air force had destroyed Iraq's army supply depots and fuel supplies, and

7221-408: Was legal. The term "Jash Police" was used by the Kurds towards Iraq's local Kurdish police militias in 1944. In the latter half of the 20th century, Kurds who became collaborators with the Iraqi government were referred to as jash . The number of jash increased to "as many as 150,000 by 1986" as a method of avoiding military participation in the Iran–Iraq War . The jash then realigned with

7308-480: Was located near the border's southern end, to cut off the Shatt al-Arab from the rest of Iran and to establish a territorial security zone. The other two divisions invaded across the northern and central part of the border to prevent an Iranian counter-attack. On the northern front, the Iraqis attempted to establish a strong defensive position opposite Sulaymaniyah to protect the Iraqi Kirkuk oil complex . On

7395-408: Was strangling the country through an aerial siege. On the other hand, Iran's supplies had not been exhausted, despite sanctions, and the military often cannibalised spare parts from other equipment and began searching for parts on the black market. On 28 November, Iran launched Operation Morvarid (Pearl), a combined air and sea attack that destroyed 80% of Iraq's navy and all of its radar sites in

7482-419: Was taken from the title of the eighth chapter of the Qur'an ( al-ʾanfāl ). In 1993, Human Rights Watch released a report on the Anfal campaign based on documents captured by Kurdish rebels during the 1991 uprisings in Iraq ; HRW described it as a genocide and estimated between 50,000 and 100,000 deaths. This characterization of the Anfal campaign was disputed by a 2007 Hague court ruling, which stated that

7569-599: Was the Iranian Embassy siege in London, in which six armed Khuzestani Arab insurgents took the Iranian Embassy's staff as hostages, resulting in an armed siege that was finally ended by Britain's Special Air Service . A 2014 academic source confirms that the embassy attackers were "recruited and trained" by the Iraqi government. According to former Iraqi general Ra'ad al-Hamdani , the Iraqis believed that in addition to

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