| Halabja |
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| cities and towns in iraq | |
| iraqi kurdistan | |
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Halabja ( about 150 miles northeast of Baghdad and 8-10 miles from the Iranian border. It was the site of the Halabja Poison Gas Attack and later a total destruction after the ground re-occupation by Saddam Hussein 's forces during the Iran-Iraq War in 1988 , and is a stronghold of the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan. In the mountains to the East of Halabja the armed Islamists of the Ansar Al-Islam occupied a small enclave in the period 2000 - 2003. The area was overrun by Peshmerga from the Patriotic Union Of Kurdistan (PUK), with US air-support at the beginning of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The town's population is largely Kurdish and is known for being more religiously observant than Kurds in other Iraqi regions. On December 23, 2005, a Dutch court sentenced Frans Van Anraat , a businessman who bought chemicals on the world market and sold them to Saddam's regime, to 15 years in prison. The Dutch court ruled that Saddam committed genocide against the people of Halabja, which was the first time a court described the use of Chemical Weapons against the people of Halabja as Genocide . On the 2006 anniversary of the gas attack, violent demonstrations erupted in Halabja against the Kurdish administration. An estimated 7,000 demonstrators protested against priorities in reconstruction, claiming party bosses did not care about the problems of the gas attack victims. Road blocks were set up and the gas attack Memorial museum was set afire. Police fired at protesters killing one 14-year old boy and wounding many others. EXTERNAL LINKS
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