Halabja chemical attack

Saddam's ruthless revenge on Iraqi Kurds

In Operation Val-Fajr-4, Kurdish, Persian, and other youth went to the battlefields to put an end to the enemies' attacks and free Marivan from the fire of the enemies' artillery. And they managed to do so. The enemies constantly put Marivan under heavy fire using their long-range artillery. These youth along with the members of Basij and the Islamic Republic's Guards Corps - who were in fact brave Kurdish youth and people from other parts of the country - organized operation Val-Fajr-4. They managed to put an end to the enemies' attacks and made the enemies retreat. They even managed to free Halabja [in Iraq] which was occupied by the enemies.

And do you know what the enemies did to make up for that failure? They could not invade Marivan because our brave soldiers had previously proven their power to them. Therefore, the merciless inhuman enemies, who were members of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, dropped chemical bombs on the city of Halabja. Hundreds or even thousands of the Kurdish people who lived in Halabja died in those attacks simply because Saddam Hussein wanted to take revenge on the Kurdish people of Halabja because they had not confronted the faithful Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic and had accepted them with open arms.

Imam Khamenei, May 16, 2009