(Adnkronos) – Italy on Tuesday commemorated the mass killings of mainly Kurdish civilians and security force members between February and September 1988 in the Anfal campaign in northeast Iraq carried out by late dictator Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime.
“On the 38th anniversary of the Anfal campaign, we remember all those who lost their lives,” the embassy wrote on X.
“We renew our shared commitment to protecting human rights, upholding justice, and preserving memory, so that such tragedies may never be repeated again,” the post added.
US-based group Human Rights Watch estimates that 50,000-100,000 people were murdered during the Anfal (‘spoils of war’) campaign, while the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party puts the death toll at 182,000. The campaign’s purpose was to eliminate Kurdish rebel group and Arabize strategic areas of the oil-and-gas-rich Kirkuk governorate.
