This is a statue of the Kurdish poet Ibn Moustafa that now resides outside of the Erbil/Hawler Qalah. *

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Halabja. In an attempt to bring the Kurdish areas under his authoritarian rule and punish them for there role in the Iran-Iraq War, Saddam launched his deadly Anfal Campaign on Kurdish civilians in the 1980s. In 1988, he used the village of Halabja as a testing ground for his most deadly chemical weapons. Over 5,000 civilians were killed in the attack that left the city strewn with the corpses of men, women, children, and infants. This action remains one of the most horrific single acts by a government on its people in modern history. Sadly, Halabja was not the only village to suffer such attacks. *

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