The 37th Anniversary of the Barzani Genocide

On July 31, 1983 the former Ba’athist Regime in Iraq took around 8,000 members of the Barzani tribe, including men, women and children to the deserts of southern Iraq, killing them and burying them in mass graves. The remains of some have been found and relocated to the Kurdistan Region.

This brutal attack on the Barzani tribe was part of a wider campaign on genocide against the Kurds in an infamous operation called Anfal, an Arabic term used in the Quran (spoils of war). The campaign resulted in deaths of more than 182,000 people and the destruction of more than 5,000 villages.