By Rebin Yarahmad HALABJA, Kurdistan Region— More than 400 survivors of the 1988 chemical attacks on the Kurdish city of Halabja still require medical treatment from the severe wounds they suffered decades ago. Since 2003, a total of 88 survivors of the attack died due to their wounds, said Luqman Abdulqadir, head of the Society for Victims of Halabja Chemical Attack. That number rose to 89 on Thursday. The latest victim to die, Hakeem Salih, was 70 years old. He lost his wife in the chemical attacks, and he is survived by his two daughters. “Dozens of other (victims) are still in critical condition and need treatment immediately,” Abdulqadir told Rudaw. More than 5,000 people were gassed to death by the Iraqi army near the end of the Iran-Iraq war in March 1988. Hundreds of others have died since, of illnesses related to the chemical attack, according to data recorded by the Halabja society. Ali Hasan Majieed, a general of the Iraqi army under former ruler Saddam Hussein, was sentenced to death for ordering the attack and executed in 2010.
