Halabja

Halabja is a city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, near the border with Iran. It is the capital of Halabja Governorate and lies in a mountainous plain to the east of Sulaymaniyah, about 240 kilometers northeast of Baghdad. The population is predominantly Kurdish.

Halabja has long been part of the Kurdish cultural and political landscape. Following the 1991 uprisings in Iraq, it came under the administration of the Kurdistan Regional Government and remains part of the Kurdistan Region within Iraq.

The Halabja chemical attack occurred on March 16, 1988, during the Iran-Iraq War. Iraqi forces dropped chemical weapons on the city and surrounding areas, killing thousands of civilians and injuring many more. The event is widely cited as one of the deadliest chemical weapons attacks in history and is linked to the broader Anfal campaign carried out by the Iraqi regime in the late 1980s.

In the years since, Halabja has rebuilt and memorialized the victims. The city hosts monuments and a museum dedicated to the attack and its survivors, and annual commemorations are held around March 16. The memory of Halabja remains a significant element in Kurdish and Iraqi discussions of chemical weapons and human rights.