Chemical Warfare during the Iran-Iraq War

News ID: 239162

Date: 27 January 2010 - 11:01

During the 8-years of Iraqi of aggressing against Iran (1980-1988), Iraqi forces employed chemical weapons extensively against Iranian targets including both military personnel and civilians in border towns villages .The agents used by the Iraqis fell into two major categories   based   on   chemical    composition    and casualty-producing effects: The most frequently-used compounds were organophosphate neurotoxins, known as nerve agent Tabun and Sarin. Mustard gas was also used extensively.

Iraqi troops are reported to have used vomiting agents during their initial smaller attacks on the Helaleh and NeyKhazar zones in 1981.They then employed chemical weapons in August 1983 on the Piranshahr     and Haj-Omaran battlefields and later in November 1983 on the Panjvien battlefield.

The first extensive chemical attack by Iraqi troops was carried out in March 1984, when they used tones  of  sulphur  mustard and nerve agents  against  Iranian soldiers on the Majnoon Islands battlefields  (along the southern border).Afterward, extensive employment of chemical weapons by Iraqi troops in March 1985 led to huge Iranian casualties both soldiers and volunteer combatants.    Following    requests   by the  Iranian  Government , UN specialist teams were sent to Iran in March 1984, April1985, February/March  1986,  Appril1987 , March, July and Aug 1988.The conclusions, based on field inspections, clinical examinations of casualties, and laboratory analysis  of   samples, were released  as official UN Documents  (S/16433, S/17127, S/17011, S,18852, S/19823 , S/20060 , S/20134)Based on the UN fact finding team s investigations they confirmed the use of mustard gas as well as nerve agents against Iranians.

The reports were subsequently submitted to the Security Council and two statements were released on 13 March 1984 and 21 March 1986 condemning the use of chemical weapons.  But   neither these two   statements,   nor Resolution 612 (May   1988   ) or Resolution 620 (August 1988) secured the cessation of chemical weapons attacks by the Iraqi regime which continued to violate international law with impunity.

Chemical attack against civilian targets

The Iraqi regime not only used chemical weapons against military targets, but frequently targeted civilian residential areas, especially the border towns and villages.

According to official reports, there were more than 30 chemical attacks against Iranian (and some Iraqi Kurds) non-military targets.

The main attacks were:

§        Sardasht (28 June 1987).

§        Villages around the city of Marivan (March 1988)

§        Halabja, with the massacre of more than 5,000 civilians (16 March 1988).

§        Villages’ around the cities of Sarpol-e Zahab, Gilan-e-gharb and Oshnavieh.

Even some medical centers and field hospitals were targeted by chemical munitions which resulted in high casualties among medical personnel.

The most recent and accurate description of chemical weapons use by Iraqi forces during the conflict is the 2003 United Nations Monitoring Verification & Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) report. This document estimates that 1,800 metric tones of mustard gas, 140 tones of Tabun and over 600 tones of Sarin were used against Iran using munitions that included approximately 19,500 aerial bombs, 54,000 artillery shells and 27,000 short-range rockets.   In excess of 1 million Iranians sustained exposure to these agents during the war, resulting in thousands of deaths from their acute effects.

This tragedy was a horrifying epic in the annals of modern warfare, inflicting enormous suffering that continues to the present day in the from of latent illness among tens of thousands of survivors.

It must not be forgotten that according to the UNSCOM reports, the main suppliers of chemical precursors and facilities for Saddam’s regime were western companies.

The chemical warfare toll

During the Iran-Iraq War, an estimated 1,000,000 Iranians, both military and civilian, were exposed to chemical warfare agents.  More than 100,000 Iranians were documented to have received emergency medical care for chemical injuries. Half of those injuries were moderate to severe. During the war, 5,500 Iranians died directly and immediately from chemical injuries (3,500from nerve or blood agents and 2,000 from mustard agent) but since the end of the war in 1988, several hundred have died of chronic complications due to mustard intoxication.

In   2008,  almost  20  years after  the  end   of  war, approximately 65,000 Iranians are registered as receiving care for chronic effects from chemical weapons injuries.

Morbidity and Mortality from Chemical Warfare

Agents (CW) during Iran-Iraq war

1,000,000*

Exposed individuals

100,000

Victims who hospitalized and received medical treatment for heavy exposure

5,500

3,500 nerve or

Blood agents

2,000 mustard

Direct / Immediate deaths from CW

65,000

Victims with chronic CW injuries, in registry

40,000*

Victims with chronic CW injuries, not in registry

20,000*

Civilians with chronic CW injuries

*Estimate

While this book is about CW victims in Iran, it is important not to forget victims of Saddam’s chemical weapons attacks in Iraq. In the Anfa campaign during 1980s, the Iraqi military used nerve and mustard agents as well as other toxic agents against Kurdish villages in the northern provinces of Iraq and tens of thousands were killed or injured.  About 5.000 civilians in the town of halabja alone died instantly from nerve agent poisoning on 16 March 1988, and many other Iraqi towns and villages were also gassed in this campaign. It is estimated that at least 20,000 Iraqi civilians sustained moderate to severe chemical injuries. Many of them were evacuated to Iran for medical treatment.

Bibliography:

Foroutan .A,   Medical Experiences of Iraq’s Chemical warfare, ISBN: 964-465-654-8, 2003

Unresolved Disarmament issues, Iraq’s proscribed Weapons Programs

6 March 2003, UNMOVIC Working document