Halabja
March 16, 2003
15th Commemoration Day of the
Halabja poison gas massacre
Halabja, Northern Iraq – March 16, 1988 close to the end of the Iraq – Iran war
Witnesses saw Iraqi jets make more than twenty raids on the town, dropping clusters of bombs. After the flash and the flame of the explosions, a cloud of white almond essence descended upon Halabja. Five thousand people breathed it and died. Another 12000 people were severely injured by the 
chemicals.
"I was running, filled with the giant strenghth of panic, with a child tucked under each arm. Behind us, our village was filling with the white clouds of gas. We only just got out. The gas was coming fast behind us and it was threatening to catch us. I turned round and I could see my wife running a little way behind me. She also had two children to carry. My wife’s face was twisted in an expression which I do not like to remember. You see, we had five children, not four, but we could only carry two each. I shall never forget that small figure 
of my son, running along following me, reaching out his arms, begging me not to leave him. As God is my witness, I never loved him more than at that moment."
Partly to drive the Iranians out and partly to set an example for other Kurdish foes of the Iraqi regime, in more than 20 bombing raids on the 16th of March, 1988, a squadron of Iraqi bombers dropped dozens of cluster bombs as well as numerous 100-liter canisters containing deadly cyanide, nerve gas, and other toxic agents in the very heart of the residential areas of Halabja.
A few minutes before the raids began an Iraqi artillery barrage had forced the residents out of their homes to where they would be most vulnerable to the instantaneous effects of the poisonous gases.