Discussing Halabja today

Print Story - canada.com network: "Revisiting the horror of Halabja
Nineteen years later, Susan Mohammad revisits the horror with shell-shocked survivors of the forgotten city

Susan Mohammad
The Ottawa Citizen

Sunday, October 28, 2007

This photograph of a Kurdish baby clutched in death by her father was seen around the world in the days following the attack.
CREDIT: Irna, Agence France-Presse, Getty Images
This photograph of a Kurdish baby clutched in death by her father was seen around the world in the days following the attack.

Part 1

On March 16, 1988, Iraqi planes dropped bombs filled with deadly gas on the Kurdish city of Halabja.

An estimated 5,000 people were killed on Bloody Friday. Some say they were the lucky ones.

HALABJA, Iraq - The Kurdish city of Halabja in northern Iraq may be one of the most haunted places on Earth.

If the mountains south of the city could speak, they would tell the story of March 16, 1988, the day Iraqi military planes dropped chemical bombs on the unsuspecting city. And if the earth covering the mass graves in the city's cluttered cemetery could, it would whisper the names of the 5,000 people killed that day.

Aras Abadakram lost 22 members of his family 19 years ago, including seven sisters, three brothers and his parents. He is the sole survivor of his immediate family."