Victims of chemical attack on Halabja commemorated

Thousands of Iraqi Kurds have taken part in a ceremony commemorating the chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja, which occurred during the closing days of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

Kurds gathered in the town on Tuesday to commemorate and honor the victims of the carnage, which was ordered by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The Kurdistan Regional Government issued a statement marking the anniversary of the Halabja massacre.

"Through remembrance of the victims of the Halabja attack, we are continuing the process of healing from decades of atrocities committed against the Kurdish people," KRG representative to the United States Qubad Talabani said on Tuesday.

Halabja is 81km (50 miles) southeast of Sulaimaniyah and 364km (226 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

It was subjected to an aerial chemical weapons attack in March 1988 carried out by the air force of the Baathist regime.

The death toll was widely estimated as 5000, with more than 10,000 injured.

The first session of the Halabja trial, with some of the alleged planners and perpetrators of the attacks in the dock, took place on December 21, 2008.

The Iraqi High Criminal Court reached its final verdict on the case on January 17, 2010 and sentenced the major criminals to various prison terms.

However, Ali Hassan al-Majid, or "Chemical Ali," was sentenced to death and executed after being found guilty of orchestrating the atrocities against the Kurdish people.

The Iraqi appeal commission recognized the attack on Halabja as "genocide" on March 1, 2010.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121001§ionid=351020201.