We came to Halabja as an expression of sympathy and unity

Iranian Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Mohammad Ali Qaderi, in commemoration of the 36th anniversary of the Halabja tragedy, on Saturday (March 16, 2024) said that: “we came as an expression of sympathy and a reminder of the unity of the Iranian and Iraqi peoples and the people of the region,” whom he described as "the brave ones." He noted that he was participating in the ceremonies “as a representative of the ministry,” noting that “the Iranians have been close to the people of the region for a long time.” He recalled that "the Iranian people stood with the respectable and brave people of the city when the chemical bombing occurred." On March 16, 1988, Halabja was bombed with chemical weapons by the former regime in Iraq, which led to the martyrdom of more than 5,000 of its citizens and the injury of twice that number, many of whom suffer from the effects of toxic gases to this day. It became a district in 1998, and the Kurdistan Parliament declared it a governorate in 1999