The Anfal Campaign: The Iraqi State’s Genocide Against the Kurds

The Kurdish people form one of the world’s largest stateless nations, with their homeland divided across four countries, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, following World War I, against their collective will. Since that division, Kurds have been systematically denied self-determination, basic rights, and recognition. Instead, they have faced relentless persecution, including forced assimilation, displacement, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.

One of the most devastating chapters in Kurdish history occurred under Iraq’s Ba'athist regime. Rooted in Ba'athist ideology—marked by pan-Arabism, expansionism, and ethnic nationalism—the Iraqi government pursued policies of Arabization and ethnic cleansing in Kurdish territories. Over the 35-year reign of the Ba’ath Party, especially under Saddam Hussein, atrocities were committed on a massive scale.

Key incidents of repression include:

• The Arabization of Kurdish borderlands beginning in 1968

• The deportation of Faili Kurds in the 1970s and 1980s

• The forced removal and cleansing of Yazidi Kurds

• The aerial bombardment of Qalladze in 1974, killing 400 civilians

• Mass deportations from villages near the Turkish and Iranian borders (1975–1977)

• The execution of approximately 8,000 Barzani men in 1983

• Widespread bombing of Kurdish villages from 1983 onward

• The use of chemical weapons in attacks on Kurdish towns and villages in 1987 and 1988, including the infamous assault on Halabja, which killed around 5,000 civilians

However, the culmination of this campaign of extermination came with the Anfal campaign in 1988—a series of coordinated military operations that marked the most egregious crime committed against the Kurds.

The Anfal Campaign: A Genocidal Operation

Named after the eighth sura of the Qur’an, “Al-Anfal” (meaning “the Spoils”), the campaign was a codename for a series of genocidal military operations conducted by the Iraqi regime between February 23 and September 6, 1988. Led by Saddam Hussein’s cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid—notoriously known as “Chemical Ali”—the campaign targeted Kurdish civilians with the intent to destroy Kurdish society in its entirety.

Granted sweeping authority over northern Iraq, al-Majid oversaw the coordinated efforts of the Iraqi Army, Military Intelligence, General Security Directorate, and pro-government Kurdish militias (jahsh). This unified state apparatus executed the genocide with terrifying efficiency.

According to Human Rights Watch, the Anfal campaign:

• Resulted in the disappearance of over 182,000 Kurds

• Destroyed more than 4,000 Kurdish villages

• Included the use of chemical weapons on towns like Halabja and dozens of villages

• Employed mass executions, primarily of men and boys, but also of women and children

• Enacted widespread looting, the destruction of homes, schools, mosques, and farms

• Forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands of villagers without support or compensation

• Detained tens of thousands in prison camps under inhumane conditions, leading to widespread death from malnutrition and disease

These crimes were not committed in the fog of war; they were deliberate and systematic. The regime masked them with euphemisms such as “collective measures” and “return to the national ranks,” reminiscent of Nazi Germany’s linguistic obfuscation.

International Recognition and Accountability

In its extensive 1993 report Genocide in Iraq: The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds, Human Rights Watch concluded that Iraq had committed genocide. The conclusion was based on the analysis of over 16 metric tons of captured Iraqi documents and interviews with more than 350 survivors and witnesses.

The Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) later convicted Saddam Hussein and Ali Hassan al-Majid for their roles in the Anfal campaign, recognizing it as genocide. The Iraqi Parliament, in a landmark decision on September 10, 2008, formally acknowledged Anfal as a genocide under Article 26.

Several countries—including Sweden, Norway, South Korea, and the United Kingdom—have also officially recognized the Anfal campaign as genocide.

A Legacy of Pain and a Call for Justice

The Anfal campaign was not only a humanitarian catastrophe but also a cultural and economic decimation of Kurdish life. Entire communities were wiped out. Families disappeared without trace. Livelihoods were destroyed. The rural Kurdish economy, culture, and geography were deliberately targeted for erasure.

By conservative estimates, at least 50,000 rural Kurds were killed during Anfal, though many sources cite numbers as high as 182,000. Men from ages 14 to 50 were systematically executed, while thousands of women, children, and the elderly perished from chemical attacks, displacement, or detention.

The Kurdish people continue to seek global recognition of this genocide—not only to honor the victims, but also to prevent such atrocities from ever occurring again.

Remembering Anfal is not just an act of mourning—it is a demand for truth, justice, and accountability.