Event

Halabja massacre

1988 · 20th century · Also known as Halabja chemical attack

The Halabja massacre was a chemical weapons attack by Iraqi forces on the Kurdish town of Halabja on 16 March 1988, near the end of the Iran–Iraq War. Mustard gas and nerve agents killed an estimated 3,200 to 5,000 people, most of them civilians, and injured thousands more. It is the deadliest chemical attack on a civilian population in history, and an Iraqi court recognised it as genocide in 2010.

Halabja massacre
Image: Mehdi Jamshidi · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 state history

Republic of Iraq

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Halabja massacre. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/halabja-massacre
MLA
“Halabja massacre.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/halabja-massacre. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Halabja massacre.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/halabja-massacre.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Halabja massacre’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/halabja-massacre (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻