West Asia At War: Repression, Resistance and Great Power Games

by Talmiz Ahmad

From 1983, Iraq began to use poison gas against Iranian troops, increasing the intensity of its use from the next year. In March 1988, after the Iranians took the Kurdish town of Halabja, the Iraqis bombed the town with chemical weapons, killing about 4,000 Kurds. Through the war, Iraq used 110,000 chemical munitions against Iran.48 At this time, Iraq enjoyed the backing of the US and its European allies. From the US, Iraq obtained satellite imagery that showed Iranian troop movements. The US also threw its weight behind Iraq at international fora, while ignoring its development and use of chemical weapons through much of the war. After the horrific Halabja episode, the US insisted that both sides had used chemical weaponry and, under US influence, the UNSC Resolution failed to identify Iraq as the sole culprit. These experiences fed into Iran’s deep distrust of the Western powers, particularly the US, which it came to see as ‘duplicitous and hypocritical’.49