The Anfal campaign

Anfal genocide
Part of the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict and the Iran–Iraq War
Human remains found in at a mass grave site in Iraqi Kurdistan, July 15, 2005
Location	Iraq
Date	1986–1989 (In strict sense 23 February 1988 – 6 September 1988)
Target	Exterminating Kurdish opposition
Attack type	Forced disappearance, Genocidal massacre
Deaths	50,000-100,000 (Although Kurdish officials have claimed the figure could be as high as 182,000.)
Perpetrators	Iraq
Motive	Eliminate Kurdish resistance.

Al-Anfal campaign
Part of the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict and the Iran–Iraq War
Date 1986–1989 (In strict sense 23 February 1988 – 6 September 1988) Location Iraq Result Insurgency weakened but not quelled Destruction of 4,500 villages.
Belligerents
Ba'athist Iraq	KDP PUK
Commanders and leaders
Saddam Hussein Ali Hassan al-Majid Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri< Ahmad al-Tai Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti Farhan Jubouri Saber Abdel Aziz al-Douri Taher Tawfiq al-Ani Ayad Abbas Al-Nassri Wafiq Al-Samarrai	Massoud Barzani Jalal Talabani
Units involved
1st Corps 5th Corps National Defense Battalions
Strength
200,000	3,500
Casualties and losses
50,000–182,000 civilians killed

The Anfal genocide was the Kurdish genocide that killed between 50,000 and 182,000Kurds committed during the Al-Anfal campaign (Harakat al-Anfal/Homleh al-Anfal) (Kurdish: پڕۆسەی ئەنفال‎) (Arabic: حملة الأنفال‎‎), a campaign against Kurdistan in northern Iraq, led by Ali Hassan al-Majid in the final stages of the Iran–Iraq War. The campaign takes its name from Surat al-Anfal in the Qur'an, which was used as a code name by the former Iraqi Baathist government for a series of systematic attacks against the Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq, conducted between 1986 and 1989 and culminating in 1988. Sweden, Norway and the United Kingdom officially recognize the Anfal campaign as genocide.

Al-Anfal is the eighth sura or chapter of the Qur'an which explains the triumph of 313 followers of the new Muslim faith over almost 900 pagans at the Battle of Badr in 624 AD. Al Anfal literally means the spoils (of war) and was used to describe the military campaign of extermination and looting commanded by Ali Hassan al-Majid. His orders informed jash (literally "donkey's foal" in Kurdish) units that taking cattle, sheep, goats, money, weapons and even Kurdish women was legal.

The Anfal campaign began in 1986 and lasted until 1989, and was headed by Ali Hassan al-Majid (a cousin of then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from Saddam's hometown of Tikrit). The Anfal campaign included the use of ground offensives, aerial bombing, systematic destruction of settlements, mass deportation, firing squads, and chemical warfare, which earned al-Majid the nickname of "Chemical Ali".