Shafaq News/ On Monday, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) responded to allegations made by the son-in-law of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who attempted to absolve the Baathist regime of the Halabja chemical massacre, reaffirming that the previous regime was responsible for the atrocity.
KRG's media office stated, "In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Jamal Mustafa Al-Tikriti, Saddam’s son-in-law, made a baseless claim denying the chemical attack committed by the Baathist regime on Halabja. He went further by falsely attributing a statement to PM Masrour Barzani, claiming that 'two Iranian aircraft bombed Halabja.' This claim is entirely fabricated, and the Prime Minister has never made such a statement."
The statement emphasized that "the perpetrators of the chemical attack on Halabja were indeed the former Iraqi regime itself. All evidence conclusively proves that it was responsible for this crime."
On March 16, 1988, Iraqi warplanes flew over Halabja for five hours, dropping a mixture of mustard gas, sarin, and nerve agents. The bombing resulted in 5,000 deaths, mostly women and children, and thousands of injuries.
In January 2010, Ali Hassan Al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," a cousin of Saddam Hussein, was sentenced to death and executed for his role in the massacre.
The chemical attack on Halabja occurred in the final days of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. This attack, labeled as genocide, was the largest chemical assault targeting civilians of a single ethnic group, the Kurds, aligning with the definition of genocide under international law, which necessitates intent to destroy a particular group or ethnicity.