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Appendix C

Known Chemical Attacks

in Iraqi Kurdistan, 1987-1988

This table includes only those attacks that Middle East Watch has been able to document through eyewitness testimony. The true figure may be considerably higher, since we have received many other unconfirmed reports and allegations of chemical weapons attacks during 1987-1988. Based on our field interviews, at least sixty villages, as well as the town of Halabja, were attacked with mustard gas, nerve gas, or a combination of the two;

The Iraqi regime appears to have used chemical weapons for at least four complementary purposes:

(a) To attack base camps and main-force concentrations of Kurdish peshmerga. This logic accounts for many of the attacks on the Jafati valley (First Anfal), the Qara Dagh area (Second Anfal), the Balisan and Smaquli valleys (Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Anfals) and Zewa Shkan (Final Anfal);



(b) To harass and kill retreating peshmerga as Anfal progressed. Attacks of this sort include those on Shanakhseh (#14 in the accompanying table), Zerda mountain (#19), Tazashar (#20) and the Shaqlawa-Rawanduz area (#26 and 27);

(c) To inflict exemplary collective punishment on civilians for their support for the peshmerga. The most dramatic case is the bombing of Halabja after the seizure of the town by peshmerga and Iranian revolutionary guards. Others include the 1987 attacks on Sheikh Wasan and Balisan (#4), and the Anfal attacks on Sayw Senan (#15) and Goktapa (#22);

(d) To spread terror amongst the civilian population as a whole, flushing villagers out of their homes to facilitate their capture, relocation and killing. The opening of almost every phase of the Anfal campaign was marked by attacks of this sort, but they are most apparent in the Final Anfal (Khatimat al-Anfal) in the Badinan region, where more than thirtyvillages were bombed simultaneously along an east-west strip on the morning of August 25, 1988.

While a distinction between these different kinds of targets is helpful in understanding the tactical thinking behind the Iraqi campaign, it is without meaning in legal terms. Chemical weapons are by their nature indiscriminate, and their use is outlawed under any circumstances.

DATE (M/D/Y) LOCATION MEANS DEATHS

1. 4/15/87 Sergalou-Bergalou air not known

2. 4/15/87 Gojar mountain, Mawat rajima* not known

3. 4/15/87 Zewa Shkan air not known

4. 4/16/87 Sheikh Wasan, Balisan air 225-400**



5. 5/?/87 Ja'faran (Qara Dagh) rajima --

6. 5/?/87 Serko (Qara Dagh) air --

7. 5/27/87 Bileh, Malakan (village and air 1+

8. 5-7/87 Bergalou, Haladin, air + 7+

9. 2/?/88 Sheikh Bzeini area air --

10. 2/?/88 Takiyeh, Balagjar air --

11. 3/16/88 Halabja air 3,200-5,000

FIRST ANFAL (JAFATI VALLEY)

12. 2/23/88 Yakhsamar rajima 5

13. 2/23-3/18/88 Sergalou, Bergalou, Haladin air +

and neighboring villages and rajima not known

mountains (constant attacks)

14. 3/22/88 Shanakhseh air up to 28

SECOND ANFAL (QARA DAGH)

15. 3/22/88 Sayw Senan rajima 78-87

16. 3/23/88 Dukan rajima not known

17. 3/24/88 Ja'faran rajima --

18. 3/24/88 Masoyi helicopter --



19. c.3/30/88 Zerda Mountain (Qara Dagh) rajima --

THIRD ANFAL (GERMIAN)

20. 4/10/88 Tazashar air 15-25

FOURTH ANFAL (LESSER ZAB VALLEY)

21. 5/3/88 Askar air 9

22. 5/3/88 Goktapa air 154-300

FIFTH, SIXTH AND SEVENTH ANFAL (SHAQLAWA-RAWANDUZ)



23. 5/15/88 Wara air 37

24. 5/23/88 Seran; Balisan, Hiran and air 2+

Smaquli valleys

25. 5/26/88 Akoyan, Faqian, Rashki rajima --

Baneshan mountain

26. 7/31/88 Malakan, Seran, Garawan; air 13+

Balisan, Hiran, Smaquli and

Benmerd valleys

27. 8/8-8/26/88 Balisan valley and adjacent air not known

areas (constant attacks)

FINAL ANFAL (BADINAN)***



28. 8/24/88 Zewa Shkan air + not known

rajima

29. 8/25/88 Birjinni air 4

30. 8/25/88 Tilakru air not known

31. 8/25/88 Gelnaski air --



32. 8/25/88 Tuka, Barkavreh air 14-15



33. 8/25/88 Warmilleh, Bilejaneh air --

34. 8/25/88 Ikmala, Heseh, Khrabeh air 3-6

35. 8/25/88 Ruseh, Nazdureh air 1+

36. 8/25/88 Berrabareh air --

37. 8/25/88 Swareh, Spindar, Avok, Sidara air 2+

(south side of Gara Mountain)

38. 8/25/88 Mergeti, Bawarkeh Kavri and air not known

other villages (north side of

Gara Mountain)

39. 8/25/88 Gizeh, Rodinya, Shirana and air 9+

other villages (center of

Gara Mountain)

40. 8/25/88 Baluka air not known

* truck-mounted multiple barrel artillery.

** the dead include two busloads of adult men and teenage boys subsequently disappeared from Amn captivity.

*** Final Anfal fatality statistics refer only to on-site deaths; they exclude later deaths from the effects of chemicals.

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