The Anfal Campaign against the Iraqi Kurds – Today in History.

September 7, 1988 is an important day for the ethnic minority Kurdish people of Iraq. September 7 and 8 marked the end of a major military drive by Iraqi forces in the Anfal Campaign against the Iraqi Kurds of northern Iraq. The military operations of the Anfal Campaign, carried out by Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam Hussein’s cousin, followed a typical pattern. First, Iraqi air forces dropped chemical weapons on Kurdish villages, forcing people from their homes. At the same time, ground forces surrounded the villages to capture fleeing people and destroy the villages. Iraqi forces took Kurdish prisoners to camps and executed men of weapon-bearing age.

Because of these attacks, which observers believe to be the first widespread use of chemical weapons by a government against its own population, nearly 100,000 Kurdish people flee across the border into neighboring Turkey. The Anfal Campaign destroys close to 90 percent of Kurdish villages in northern Iraq and estimates of the number of Kurds killed go as high as 182,000 people. Ali Hassan al-Majid himself estimated nearly 100,000 deaths.

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Unpacking the Implications of the Anfal Campaign Against the Iraqi Kurds

Why did this happen in 1988? For one, Iraq’s war with neighboring Iran was nearing its end, freeing up well-trained and experienced military forces to operate against the Kurds. Saddam Hussein’s anger against the Kurds stemmed from the fact that Kurds are not Arabs and some of them were agitating for more autonomy or even independence within Iraq, always displeasing to a dictator such as Hussein. Thus, he viewed the campaign as a counterinsurgency operation.

The most troublesome aspect of things, however, is the use of chemical weapons during the Anfal Campaign against the Iraqi Kurds. Chemical gas attacks are a horribly painful way to die, not to mention the lasting damage to future generations when chemical compounds enter the water supply and people drink them.

Sadder still, many of these chemicals were manufactured in the United States and sold to Saddam Hussein to fight the war against Iran. The calculus went as follows—Iran had taken Americans hostage during its revolution in 1979, so when the Iran-Iraq War began in 1980, the US took the side of Iraq. It supported a murderous dictator out of revenge.

International Reaction

I wish I could write that condemnations of the Anfal Campaign against the Iraqi Kurds were widespread and harsh, but in fact, the international outcry was weak at best. No one in government wanted to own up to supplying the money and chemical weapons used to slaughter civilians, so most governments, the United States included, did little, hoping the whole thing would conveniently go away and they could keep the egg off their faces.

Sometimes, I wonder if events like this even enter the conscience of the government officials who approve the transfer of chemicals that can be weaponized, or the corporate executives who create these compounds knowing what their likely use is going to be. I doubt it, though.

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