On 28 June 1987,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
dropped
mustard gas
Mustard gas or sulfur mustard is a chemical compound belonging to a family of cytotoxic and blister agents known as mustard agents. The name ''mustard gas'' is technically incorrect: the substance, when dispersed, is often not actually a gas, b ...
bombs on
Sardasht, West Azerbaijan, Iran. In two separate bombing runs on four residential areas, the attack killed 130 people and injured 8,000.
The gas attacks occurred during the
Iran–Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...
when Iraq frequently used
chemical weapons
A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized Ammunition, munition that uses chemicals chemical engineering, formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be an ...
against Iranian civilians and soldiers.
In 2006, a quarter of the town's 20,000 residents were still experiencing severe illnesses from the attacks. The film
Walnut Tree
Walnut trees are any species of tree in the plant genus ''Juglans'', the type genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are referred to as walnuts. All species are deciduous trees, tall, with pinnate leaves , with 5–25 leaflets; t ...
(2020) was inspired by the event.
Background
In 1986, the President of the
Security Council of the United Nations
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, and ...
stated that the Council members were "profoundly concerned by the unanimous conclusion of the specialists that chemical weapons on many occasions have been used by Iraqi forces against Iranian troops ...
ndthe members of the Council strongly condemn this continued use of chemical weapons in clear violation of the
Geneva Protocol
The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, usually called the Geneva Protocol, is a treaty prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons in ...
of 1925, which prohibits the use in war of chemical weapons." The United States voted against the issuance of this statement.
Mustard gas is not considered a lethal agent but an incapacitating agent, causing only 3–5% mortality.
Immediate effects
![OPCW](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/OPCW.Sardasht_victims.jpg)
Because Sardasht was not considered a military target, the population was both unprotected and unprepared for a chemical weapons assault. Living close to the border and the
war front, citizens had become accustomed to Iraqi bombardment with
conventional weapon
The terms conventional weapons or conventional arms generally refer to weapons whose ability to damage comes from kinetic, incendiary, or explosive energy and exclude weapons of mass destruction (''e.g.'' nuclear, biological, radiological and c ...
s. However, people later told physicians that they did not know that the bombs carried chemical weapons; in fact, at first, they had been relieved when the bombs did not explode.
Due to the direction of the wind, the hospital and
convalescent center were contaminated, and the few doctors and nurses who were working there had to leave. Two public baths were used for decontamination of the victims, and a small stadium was converted into a 150-bed medical facility. About 30 people, mostly young children and old people, died within a few hours of the attack due to severe respiratory problems.
Aftermath
Out of 12,000 inhabitants, according to official reports, 8,000 were exposed. Of the 4,500 requiring medical care, 1,500 were hospitalized, 600 of them in
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
. The other 3,000 were treated as outpatients and discharged. Many of these 3,000 victims left the city for the villages and attempted to treat themselves using traditional medicines; the lack of documentation of their exposure and treatment lead to difficulty in obtaining government benefits.
Included among the 4,500 casualties requiring medical attention were some of the rescuers.
![Sardashtchemic](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Sardashtchemic.jpg)
By 2007, 130 people (109 civilians, 21 military) had died as a result of the attack. Of the civilians who died, 39 were under 18 years of age, including 11 under the age of 5, and 34 were women or girls.
Many of the 95% who survived the Sardasht gas attack developed serious long-term complications over the next few years, including serious respiratory problems, eye lesions, skin problems, and immune system problems.
Response
Iran announced this (chemical) assault on Sardasht as an inhumane attack and named Sardasht as the first city which was the victim of chemical armament in the world after the
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the onl ...
.
In April 2004, the
Tehran Public Court ruled that the
United States government
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...
was liable for the attacks due to its support
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
's government. The US government was ordered to pay $600 million compensation to the victims.
On 28 June 2004, in commemoration of the martyrs of the chemical bombing of Sardasht and the anniversary of the National day of the fight against weapons of mass destruction, one of the streets of Sardasht was named
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...
. A Japanese delegation from
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...
and Hiroshima talked at the ceremony. 111 white pigeons were released into the sky at the site of the victims. In the city of Hiroshima, a street is named after Sardasht, and every year the mayor of Hiroshima sends a message on the occasion of 28 June, and a group of Iranian NGO related to chemical disarmament travel to Japan to participate in the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. Iranian NGOs also has the annual exhibition in The Hague, the Netherlands, liaising with associations of victims of weapons of mass destruction in other countries, establishing a peace museum focusing on the effects of chemical weapons, membership in the International Network of Peace Museums, participation in the anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.
See also
*
Sardasht, West Azerbaijan
*
Iraq chemical attacks against Iran
Iraqi chemical attacks against Iran refers to chemical attacks used by the Iraqi armed forces against Iranian combatants and non-combatants during the Iran–Iraq War. The Iraqi armed forces employed chemical weapons against combatants and no ...
*
Chemical attack on Behbahan battalion
On 9 January 1987, at the beginning of the Battle of Shalamcheh, in the midst of the Iran–Iraq War, the Iranian Behbehan Battalion came under a heavy aerial chemical bomb attack by Iraqi forces. The Behbahan Battalion was positioned near Sh ...
*
War of the Cities (of Iran-Iraq war)
*
Halabja chemical attack
The Halabja massacre ( ku, Kêmyabarana Helebce کیمیابارانی ھەڵەبجە), also known as the Halabja chemical attack, was a massacre of Kurdish people that took place on 16 March 1988, during the closing days of the Iran–Iraq War ...
*
Disabled Iranian veterans An Iranian disabled veteran
Disabled Iranian veterans, called ''janbaz'' ( fa, جانباز, literally "those who were willing to lose their lives") in Iran, mostly constitute the disabled veterans of the Iran–Iraq war. According to Mohammad Esfa ...
*
Iraqi chemical weapons program
In violation of the Geneva Protocol of 1925, the Iraqi Army initiated two failed (1970–1974, 1974–1978) and one successful (1978–1991) offensive chemical weapons (CW) programs. President Saddam Hussein (1937–2006) pursued the most extens ...
References
{{Reflist
Iraqi chemical weapons program
Chemical weapons
Iraqi war crimes
Military operations involving chemical weapons during the Iran–Iraq War
Sardasht County
Disability in Iran
Chemical weapons in the Iran–Iraq War