The Counterinsurgency Against the Kurds of 1987-1989, with the Anfal Campaign as its Peak (1987 - 1989)

When the Iran-Iraq War was winding down, and increasingly concerned about the erosion of his authority, Saddam saw Kurdistan as an opportunity to demonstrate his power and ruthlessness. He already faced a deteriorating security situation in the north, due to an alliance between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in 1985, which led to more sustained and effective military operations against the Iraqi government. In March 1987, According to Human Rights Watch, Saddam Hussein appointed Ali Hassan al-Majid in 1987 with the mandate to suppress Kurdish resistance, leading to the implementation of the Anfal campaign, which involved systematic destruction and chemical attacks. The campaigns started intermittently with Kurdish guerilla members executed, villages demolished, agriculture destroyed, and chemical weapons used  to spread terror. The measures did not succeed in reversing the military situation because they were directed to government-controlled areas. Therefore, Ali Hassan al-Majid, commonly known as “Ali Chemical” for his use of chemical weapons against the Kurdish population. Anfal involved a comprehensive plan over eight stages of military operations and chemical attacks that was carefully planned, organised and implemented by military and security entities and the Jahs (pro-governmental Kurdish National Defense Battalion). Seven of the attacks targeted PUK-controlled areas. The final operation targeted the KDP-controlled areas in the northwest.

The Anfal Campaign, lasting from February to September 1988, included ground offensives, aerial bombing and chemical welfare, combined with mass executions, mass disappearances, forced mass displacements, systematic demolishing of around 2,000 whole villages and at least twelve larger towns and administrative centres, infrastructure and agricultural land, lootings, arbitrary arrests, and jailing under tremendously bad conditions, while men and women and even whole families were divided. The list of brutality is endless. The widespread use of chemical weapons, including mustard gas and the nerve agent GB, or Sarin, especially against  the civilian Kurdish groups including women and children, was another hallmark of Ali Hassan Al Majid’s reign of terror. Iran was largely powerless to interfere, aware of Ali Anfal’s willingness to expand the battlefield beyond Kurdish regions. For instance, the chemical attack on Halabja was not part of the initial Anfal programme, but a sudden reaction to capturing Halabja in the final phase of the Iran-Iraq War by the Kurdish Peshmerga guerillas, supported by Iran. On 16 March 1988, two days after the capturing of Halabja, Ali conducted a chemical bombardment that moved into a ground offensive, killing at least 5,000 civilians and leaving several thousands at least 7,000 people injured. The Halabja Massacre was the largest-scale chemical attack since World War I directed against a civilian population. At the end of the campaign around 80% of all villages in three governorates had been destroyed, much of the agricultural land was declared ‘prohibited territory’ and estimates of overall deaths vary, ranging from 50,000 to 100,000. Human Rights Watch and other organisations have documented mass graves and systematic killings to account for these figures On account of their ethnic and collective identity, rather than their individual status, not only Kurds became targets. While the primary targets were Kurdish populations, the campaign also involved atrocities against other minorities such as Assyrians. Destruction extended beyond Kurdish-majority areas and included efforts to consolidate control over resource-rich regions like Kirkuk.

The Anfal campaign and the counter-insurgencies before and after were aimed at the destruction of the Kurdish group in Iraq on account of their ethnic and collective identity, rather than their individual status, and amount to acts of genocide. While Arabization policies were carried out by the Baath Party starting in the 1970s, the Anfal campaign itself was a distinct counterinsurgency and genocidal effort targeting rural Kurdish populations.Vice-President Saddam negotiated with KDP Mustafa Barzani the Iraqi-Kurdish Autonomy Agreement which was signed on 11 March 1970. During the autonomy decree the Baath Party embarked on the Arabization of the oil-producing areas especially Kirkuk and Khanaqin evicting Kurdish farmers and replacing them with poor Arab tribesmen from the south.  The territorial disputes and other unfulfilled demands led to the Second Iraqi-Kurdish War (1974-1975), where Kurdish groups, including those led by Mustafa Barzani, received military support from pro-American Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The 1975 Algiers Treaty between Iran and Iraq, aimed at resolving border disputes, led to Iran withdrawing its support for Kurdish forces, which contributed to Barzani's surrender. The government forcibly evacuated at least a quarter of a million Kurdish men, women, and children from areas bordering Iran and Turkey. Many of these displaced Kurds were prohibited from returning to their homes and faced severe penalties if they attempted to do so.

This article was written by Hella Mewis and is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.