Al-Anfal Genocide

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The Kurds are an ancient Iranian ethnicity spread out across several nations in the Middle East. It is estimated that just under twenty percent of Iraq’s population is Kurdish, with most settlements in the northern part of the country. They have historically been at odds with the government of Iraq, and tensions came to a head during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, when Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist regime perpetrated the AL-Anfal Campaign. The campaign was led by Hussein’s cousin, Ali Hassan AL-Majid, whose use of mustard gas, sarin, and VX nerve gas among other substances earned him the nickname “Chemical Ali.” It is estimated that more than 180,000 Kurds were killed, with several thousand more still unaccounted for. Chemical Ali was captured by the American military and executed for war crimes, including his role in the Kurdish genocide. The Al-Anfal genocide was one of the most heinous genocides in the history of man.

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