The Anfal Genocide: 50,000-182,000 (aug 1, 1986 – jun 1, 1989)

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The Kurdish Genocide in Iraq (Anfal Campaign) was carried out by the Ba'athist Republic of Iraq under President Saddam Hussein, Ali Hassan al-Majid ("Chemical Ali" who commanded operations with unlimited powers), the Iraqi Armed Forces, Republican Guard, chemical and biological weapons departments, and Kurdish collaborators ("Jash forces") against the Kurdish population of northern Iraq (also targeting Assyrians, Shabaks, Iraqi Turkmen, Yazidis, and other minorities) between February 23, 1988 and September 6, 1988 (eight-stage military campaign, though the broader genocidal campaign lasted 1986-1989), with an estimated death toll between 50,000-100,000 (Human Rights Watch and conservative estimates) and 182,000 (most commonly cited figure including disappeared persons, with some Kurdish sources claiming 200,000+).

The Iraqi regime engaged in eight systematic military operations destroying 4,000-4,500 Kurdish villages (90% of all Kurdish villages), chemical weapons attacks killing thousands (the March 16, 1988 Halabja attack alone killed 5,000 instantly and wounded 10,000 using mustard gas, sarin, and VX nerve agents—the largest chemical weapons attack against civilians since WWI), mass executions by firing squads, burial alive in mass graves, aerial bombardment, systematic destruction of settlements, mass deportation of hundreds of thousands, forced displacement to concentration camps (mujamm'at) in southern desert, "Arabization" policies forcing 300,000 Fayli Kurds from oil-rich Kirkuk region and resettling Arabs, disappearances of 17,000+ documented by Amnesty International, torture, imprisonment, the 1983 Barzani massacre (8,000 males aged 8-70 taken and never seen again), separation of males for execution while women/children sent to camps, denial of Iraqi citizenship to those who missed October 1987 census, and complete elimination of Kurdish defensive capabilities with intent to eradicate Kurdish population.

It has been labeled as genocide by Sweden (Parliament 2012), Norway (Parliament 2012-2013), United Kingdom (House of Commons February 28, 2013), South Korea (Parliament), Iraq (officially recognized 2008, passing Accountability and Justice Law), the Netherlands (2005 Hague court ruling that "the killing of thousands of Kurds in Iraq in the 1980s was indeed an act of genocide" when convicting Dutch chemical weapons supplier Frans van Anraat), Iraqi courts (convicted Ali Hassan al-Majid of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, sentencing him to death 2007, executed 2010), Human Rights Watch (1993 report "Genocide in Iraq: The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds"), the U.S. State Department legal bureau (determined Anfal met legal criteria for genocide), Holocaust Museum Houston, and genocide scholars universally.

However, many governments have not formally recognized it as genocide despite parliamentary recognition—UK, Swedish, Norwegian governments state only judicial bodies can determine genocide, avoiding legal liability for supporting Saddam during the 1980s. Saddam was executed December 30, 2006 for unrelated Dujail massacre before his Anfal genocide trial concluded, denying Kurds full justice. The international community's silence during the genocide (U.S., UK, France provided weapons and political support to Iraq during Iran-Iraq War) demonstrates how geopolitics enabled genocide with complete Western complicity.

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