The Anfal operations were a genocidal movement by the Iraqi regime against Kurds, which began in February 1988. “The entire civilian population of Kurdistan was in one way or another affected. Nearly one-and-a-half million people were displaced, and half the landmass of Kurdistan was depopulated. The savagery of the assaults on innocent civilians was unprecedented. Gas was the weapon of choice. In Bazi Gorge on 29 August, 1988, nearly 3,000 Kurds were gassed to death. All in all, the Anfal lead to the death of nearly 200,000 civilians in a planned, methodically executed, genocide.”
– Ali A. Allawi, The Occupation of Iraq, Pages 37-38