CBRN event in Iraq on Wed 16th March 1988

Reuters reports that during a tour of Halabja, its reporter notes that Iranian officials and local survivors claim that Iraqi forces repeatedly bombed the town with on 16 March, one day after Iranian forces took the town, and that the Iraqis also used CW against the towns inhabitants. Iranian doctors report that the wax-like appearance of some of the dead indicates cyanide poisoning. [Note: This reported condition of corpses at Halabja seems to have formed the basis for the claims that cyanide was used. In fact, this condition is not pathognomonic evidence for cyanide intoxication.]

In the neighboring village of Anap, more bodies were strewn across the town, hanging out of cars and lying on the street. Some of the bodies had turned black. An Iranian Revolution Guard spokesman reports that "the Iraqis, using planes and artillery equipped with chemical weapons releasing mustard gas, cyanide and other types, caused 5,000 innocent people of Halabja and the area to die." According to Reuters, "some survivors said a single warplane appeared from the west at 2 p.m. last Wednesday [16 March] and dropped one or more chemical bombs that dispersed a deadly yellow-and-white cloud. A middle-aged man, one of the handful of people still living on the outskirts of the town, told reporters, "The Iranians came here and we welcomed them. Then, about noon time, the [Iraqi] bombardment came. Everybody was killed. I saw a cloud. I saw gas." Iranian military officials told Western journalists that two Iraqi pilots, whose jets were shot down during the battle, had acknowledged Iraq was responsible for the chemical attack.