Iraqi-Kurdistan marks the 31st anniversary of the chemical attack on the city of Halabja in which about 5,000 innocent Kurdish men, women and children died in a matter of minutes as carried out by the regime of the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
In 1988 the Iraqi Baathist regime's brutal crackdown in the Kurdish-majority in the north of the country escalated, most infamously, when its merciless viceroy "Chemical" Ali Majeed ordered a massive gas attack on Halabja on the Iranian border that killed thousands within a few hours.
There was more than one chemical attack on the Kurds, but Halabja was by far the most devastating
Iraqi-Kurds visit a grave site near the monument for victims of the Halabja gas massacre.
Iraqi Kurdish actresses perform in an open-air play in Arbil, the capital of the northern Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region, commemorating the 31st anniversary.
