Word: halabja
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...accusations came shortly after the release of a U.N. report that graphically documented the use of gas in Iraqi attacks earlier this summer. Even those reports of human suffering paled beside the horrific descriptions of Iraq's most brutal assault, the bombing last March of the village of Halabja in northern Iraq, then held by Iran, with mustard gas, cyanide and a nerve gas. When the deadly yellow and white clouds settled, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of bloated Kurdish bodies littered the streets. Despite the incontrovertible evidence of a chemical onslaught, Iraq did not admit to the use of poison...
...ground-to- ground missiles so they could reach Iranian cities. Between February and April, in the so-called war of the cities, Iraq launched 160 missile attacks on urban areas in Iran, terrifying the civilian population. The other shocker was Iraq's use in March of chemical weapons at Halabja, in northern Iraq, which severely demoralized Iranian troops, even though the main victims were rebellious Kurdish residents of Iraq...
Iraqi soldiers also reclaimed a string of mountain peaks on the northeastern frontier, placing them in good position to recapture the strategic Kurdish city of Halabja. Iranian leaders tried to sound optimistic, but they could not hide the reversal of their fortunes. Said Prime Minister Mir Hussein Mousavi: "War is a complicated and technical matter, and naturally at a certain point retreat will help the final victory...
...about the same time, Iran launched what at first appeared to be a successful offensive into northern Iraq. The push was stopped by a counterattack in which the Iraqis, according to the Iranians, used poison gas; hundreds of Iraq's own civilians perished in the city of Halabja. Iran Expert Shaul Bakhash of George Mason University says the combination of Iraqi missile and chemical attacks disheartened the Iranians. "It brought home to them for the first time that they were exposed and alone...