On 16 April 1987, Iraqi aircraft attacked the Kurdish villages of Balisan and Sheikh Wasan with chemical weapons. Remembering the attack means attending to the people who lived there, the destruction of their communities and the evidence survivors preserved. Human Rights Watch places these events within the escalation of state violence that preceded the 1988 Anfal campaign. Read the investigation’s account of the Balisan valley.
Placing the attack in its chronology
These events took place in 1987, almost a year before the chemical attack on Halabja. Human Rights Watch’s chronology records chemical attacks in other northern Iraqi locations on 15 April, followed by the aerial attack on Balisan and Sheikh Wasan on 16 April. It separately dates the first formal Anfal offensive to February 1988. Keeping those dates distinct helps explain the sequence of violence without compressing different communities’ experiences into one event. Consult the chronology of recorded chemical attacks.
What survivors remembered
Salam Hussein Aziz’s testimony, recorded by the Kurdistan Memory Programme, recalls an evening interrupted by aircraft. He sheltered in a cave with other families. After the bombing, people did not understand the danger posed by the unfamiliar fumes; some approached the places where bombs had fallen. His account describes helping families move uphill and returning to find people who could not leave unaided. Read Salam Hussein Aziz’s testimony.
His testimony also describes a later chemical attack in 1988. That distinction matters when reading or sharing survivor accounts: an interview can span several events, and the experiences recalled later in a testimony should not automatically be assigned to its opening date. The original recording and its accompanying account allow readers to follow that sequence. See the testimony’s separate accounts of 1987 and 1988.
Violence after the bombing
Human Rights Watch’s investigation follows survivors beyond the attack itself. It documents the destruction of the villages, the interruption of hospital treatment in Erbil, detention and the disappearance of men and teenage boys. Its estimate of at least 225, and possibly as many as 400, deaths includes direct and indirect consequences. That range should be attributed to the investigation rather than presented as an exact count established beyond uncertainty. Read the evidence on the attack’s aftermath and estimated toll.
Remembrance and careful history
The anniversary remains part of public remembrance in the Kurdistan Region. In its message of 16 April 2026, the Kurdistan Region Presidency commemorated the attack on Balisan, Sheikh Wasanan and the Khoshnawti valley and remembered the victims and their families. Such statements document how the event is commemorated today; survivor testimony and historical investigations provide different forms of evidence about what happened in 1987. Read the Presidency’s anniversary message.
Reading these sources together preserves the date, identifies whose account is being presented and makes uncertainty visible. It also keeps individual communities and witnesses at the centre of the history, rather than treating their suffering only as background to later political developments.
Editorial note: Kurdish History prepared this newly written, sourced account in September 2026 to replace an unavailable earlier article. It is not a recovered copy of the earlier text.