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Anfal campaign

The Anfal campaign[a] was a counterinsurgency operation which was carried out by Ba'athist Iraq from February to September 1988 during the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict at the end of the Iran–Iraq War. The campaign targeted rural Kurds[1] because its purpose was to eliminate Kurdish rebel groups and Arabize strategic parts of the Kirkuk Governorate.[2] The Iraqis committed atrocities on the local Kurdish population, mostly civilians.[3]

The Iraqi forces were led by Ali Hassan al-Majid, on the orders of President Saddam Hussein. The campaign's name was taken from the title of the eighth chapter of the Qur'an (al-ʾanfāl).


In 1993, Human Rights Watch released a report on the Anfal campaign based on documents captured by Kurdish rebels during the 1991 uprisings in Iraq; HRW described it as a genocide and estimated between 50,000 and 100,000 deaths. This characterization of the Anfal campaign was disputed by a 2007 Hague court ruling, which stated that the evidences from the documents were not sufficient to establish the charge of genocide.[b] Although many Iraqi Arabs reject that there were any mass killings of Kurdish civilians during Anfal,[4] the event is an important element constituting Kurdish national identity.

Name[edit]

"Al Anfal", literally meaning the spoils (of war),[6] was used to describe the military campaign of extermination and looting against the Kurds. It is also the title of the eighth sura, or chapter, of the Qur'an [6] which describes the victory of 313 followers of the new Muslim faith over almost 900 non-Muslims at the Battle of Badr in 624 AD. According to Randal, Jash (Kurdish collaborators with the Baathists) were told that taking cattle, sheep, goats, money, weapons and even women was halal (religiously permitted or legal).[7]

Summary[edit]

The Anfal campaign began in February 1988 and continued until August or September and included the use of ground offensives, aerial bombing, chemical warfare, systematic destruction of settlements, mass deportation and firing squads. The campaign was headed by Ali Hassan al-Majid who was a cousin of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from Saddam's hometown of Tikrit.[8]


The Iraqi Army was supported by Kurdish collaborators whom the Iraqi government armed, the so-called Jash forces, who led Iraqi troops to Kurdish villages that often did not figure on maps as well as to their hideouts in the mountains. The Jash forces frequently made false promises of amnesty and safe passage.[9] Iraqi state media extensively covered the Anfal campaign using its official name.[8] Approximately 1,200 Kurdish villages were destroyed during the Anfal campaign.[10] To many Iraqis, Anfal was presented as an extension of the ongoing Iran–Iraq War, although its victims were overwhelmingly Kurdish civilians.[8]

Death toll[edit]

Precise figures of Anfal victims do not exist due to lack of records.[1] In its 1993 report, Human Rights Watch wrote that the death toll "cannot conceivably be less than 50,000, and it may well be twice that number".[27][1] This figure was based on an earlier survey by the Sulaymaniyah–based Kurdish organization Committee for the Defence of Anfal Victims' Rights.[1] According to HRW, Kurdish leaders met with Iraqi government official Ali Hassan al-Majid in 1991 and mentioned a figure of 182,000 deaths; the latter reportedly replied that "it couldn't have been more than 100,000".[27][1] The 182,000 figure provided by the PUK was based on extrapolation[8] and "has no empirical relation to actual disappearances or killings",[1] though it "has assumed mythical status among Kurds".[28] In 1995, the Committee for the Defence of Anfal Victims' Rights released a report documenting 63,000 disappeared and stating that the entire death toll was lower than 70,000, with almost all these deaths occurring in the area of Anfal III.[1] According to Hiltermann, the figure of 100,000, although considered too low by many Kurds, is probably higher than the actual number of deaths.[1]

Aftermath[edit]

In September 1988, the Iraqi government was satisfied with its achievements. The male population between 15 and 50 had either been killed or fled. The Kurdish resistance fled to Iran and was no longer a threat to Iraq. An amnesty was issued, and the detained women, children and elderly were released[29] but not permitted to return.[30] They were sent into camps known as mujamm'at where they lived under military rule until a regional autonomy for Iraqi Kurdistan was achieved in 1991.[30] Following, most survivors returned, and began to reconstruct the villages.[30] In Kurdish society, the Anfal survivors are known as Anfal mothers (Kurdish: Daykan-î Enfal), Anfal relatives (Kurdish: Kes-u-kar-î Enfal) or Anfal widows (Kurdish: Bewajin-î Enfal).[30]

Legacy[edit]

The event has become an important element in the constitution of Kurdish national identity.[52] The Kurdistan Regional Government has set aside 14 April as a day of remembrance for the Al-Anfal campaign.[53] In Sulaymanya a museum was established in the former prison of the Directorate of General Security.[54] Many Iraqi Arabs reject that any mass killings of Kurds occurred during the Anfal campaign.[4]


On 28 February 2013, the British House of Commons formally recognized the Anfal as genocide following a campaign which was led by Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi, who is of Kurdish descent.[55]

Genocide of Yazidis by the Islamic State

Baser, Bahar; Toivanen, Mari (2017). (PDF). Journal of Genocide Research. 19 (3): 404–426. doi:10.1080/14623528.2017.1338644. hdl:10138/325889. S2CID 58142027.

"The politics of genocide recognition: Kurdish nation-building and commemoration in the post-Saddam era"

Donabed, Sargon (2015). Reforging a Forgotten History: Iraq and the Assyrians in the Twentieth Century. Edinburgh University Press.  978-0-7486-8603-2.

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Fischer-Tahir, Andrea (2012). "Gendered Memories and Masculinities: Kurdish Peshmerga on the Anfal Campaign in Iraq". Journal of Middle East Women's Studies. 8 (1): 92–114. :10.2979/jmiddeastwomstud.8.1.92. S2CID 143526869.

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Hamarafiq, Rebeen (2019). "Cultural Responses to the Anfal and Halabja Massacres". Genocide Studies International. 13 (1): 132–142. :10.3138/gsi.13.1.07. S2CID 208688723.

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Leurs, Rob (2011). "Reliving genocide: the work of Kurdish genocide victims in the Court of Justice". Critical Arts. 25 (2): 296–303. :10.1080/02560046.2011.569081. S2CID 143839339.

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Mlodoch, Karin (2021). The Limits of Trauma Discourse: Women Anfal Survivors in Kurdistan-Iraq. de Gruyter.  978-3-11-240283-2.

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Muhammad, Kurdistan Omar; Hama, Hawre Hasan; Hama Karim, Hersh Abdallah (2022). "Memory and trauma in the Kurdistan genocide". Ethnicities. 23 (3): 426–448. :10.1177/14687968221103254. S2CID 248910712.

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Sadiq, Ibrahim (2021). Origins of the Kurdish Genocide: Nation Building and Genocide as a Civilizing and De-Civilizing Process. Rowman & Littlefield.  978-1-7936-3683-6.

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Szanto, Edith (2018). "Mourning Halabja on Screen: Or Reading Kurdish Politics through Anfal Films". Review of Middle East Studies. 52 (1): 135–146. :10.1017/rms.2018.3. S2CID 158673771.

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Toivanen, Mari; Baser, Bahar (2019). "Remembering the Past in Diasporic Spaces: Kurdish Reflections on Genocide Memorialization for Anfal". Genocide Studies International. 13 (1): 10–33. :10.3138/gsi.13.1.02. hdl:10138/321880. S2CID 166812947.

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Trahan, Jennifer (2008–2009). . Michigan Journal of International Law. 30: 305.

"A Critical Guide to the Iraqi High Tribunal's ANFAL Judgment: Genocide against the Kurds"