The Fourth Anfal operation began after the completion of the Third Anfal, which resulted in the highest number of casualties and disappearances. The geography of the Fourth Anfal operation was in the Little Zab Valley, forming the border between Kirkuk and Erbil provinces. This basin included the towns of Reidar and Agjalar and several large villages, such as Asker and Goptapa, creating the Koya, Taqtaq, and Sheikh Bezini plains.
The Fourth Anfal began with a chemical attack on the village of Goptapa on May 3, 1988, with an estimated 300 victims. Simultaneously, the villages of Asker, Chami Rezan, Shonka, Mahila, Chenar, Sedi, Sheikhan, Galashir, Haji Shirebra, Kuchblakh, Zarzi, and Kilisa were chemically bombed, with Asker village alone being hit by eight chemical bombs. The total number of casualties on this day in all these areas is estimated at 560. In the documents of the Ba’ath regime, a telegram sent on July 5, 1988, to the commander of the First Corps, led by Colonel Sultan Hashem, commander of the First Corps, with the participation of Colonel Khaled Ahmad Ibrahim, commander of the Nasr forces, Brigadier General Ali Ahmad Mohammad Saleh, commander of the Sixth and Fourth forces, Brigadier Barq Abdullah al-Hajj Hanta, commander of the Oil Protection Forces, Brigadier General Ala Mohammad Taha, commander of parts of the First Corps, and the Suleimaniyah Emergency Security Forces carried out the Fourth Anfal operation. This operation was conducted from 20 points with the help of Jash (Kurdish collaborators) and advisors. It came in the telegram: destroying all “traitors” in the areas, including Sarqoshan, Goptapa, Asker, Rod Rozan, Kilisa, Bogd, Dalawa Kurdan, Bogamish, Sheikh Bazini, Qalasoka, Khalkhalan, Gomshin, Little Zab Valley, the village of Ilnjaq, Faki Mirza, Dolaaw, Garma, Satuqla, Segardan, Tepekr, Shiuchan, Shogir. In addition to the killings and arrests of people in the region, including women and children, their properties, including gold and money, a large portion of the Peshmerga’s weapons and ammunition, food supplies, and medical equipment were seized.
This operation, like previous ones, was directly supervised by Colonel Adnan Khairallah, the Minister of Defense; Ali Hassan al-Majid, the head of the Ba’ath Party’s Northern Bureau; Colonel Nizar Abdul Karim Khazraji, the Chief of Staff of the Army, and Deputy Operations Chief of Staff, and Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Rashid Mohammad Tikriti. During the Fourth Anfal, the Iraqi army was highly motivated as they had managed to recapture the Faw Peninsula on April 17 and 18, 1988, in a significant counterattack where chemical weapons were used, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and forcing Iran to negotiate a ceasefire and, on the other hand, intensify attacks on Kurdistan areas.
Chemical weapon attack on Goptapa and Askar
On May 3, 1988, a beautiful spring day, the village of Goptapa was attacked by Chemical weapons by regime aircraft. Before Goptapa, the town of Asker was attacked by MiG aircraft and bombed, during which eight chemical bombs were dropped. A southeast wind carried the gas to the village of Haidar Beg, killing nine people there. Simultaneously, Peshmerga, present there, started administering atropine to the victims. The use of chemical weapons in the early hours of the Fourth Anfal began at 5:45 PM that day when six Iraqi aircraft chemically bombed the village of Goptapa. Witnesses said the bombs described the sound as not very loud and smelled like garlic. Peshmerga forces had advised people during the chemical attack to flee towards the river and wet their faces and eyes with wet cloth. About 300 victims of chemical weapons were buried in Goptapa. Several bodies were found in the river because one bomb had fallen into it. The river was also filled with dead fish, and most people who fled met an unknown and deadly fate.
On the morning of May 4, 50 families from the village of Asker were arrested by regime forces on the main road and transferred to the military base in Suse. After the gas bombing and destruction of the villages, the river’s water level suddenly rose, clearly a regime tactic to control the Kurds. The regime opened the gates of the Dukan Dam to prevent any attempts by those trying to escape to cross the river. After the ground army attacked and destroyed the villages, the people were unable to bury the bodies left from the chemical attack, and the army buried them with bulldozers in mass graves. The people of these areas, after the destruction of their villages, fled to caves, plains, and slopes to hide and escape execution and crime, but the regime pursued them and committed many brutal crimes against them. One such incident was the burning of two 70-year-old men from the village of Moukhars, 10 miles east of Taq Taq, after killing them in that goat cave located on Gur Rahman mountain. In the Fourth Anfal, 12 army units attacked the regions from several directions. After the destruction of the Goptapa and Asker villages by the regime, some army forces moved from Koya towards the northern coastal villages of Little Zab. One group headed north to Koya, while another crossed the river to reach Sheikh Bezini.
According to one of the commanders of the First Corps, there was only strong resistance against the army in the Takalto Mountain, while in most other areas, the defense was feeble. In Suse, the villages of Surqawshan, Odalan, and Kalabash resisted the army, But later they destroyed all the villages. The village of Talan was also burned down, and the Rud Reezan Valley was suppressed entirely in the evening of May.
By May 6, the army occupied the entire region, and most of its inhabitants were missing. Two days later, on May 8, the military concluded the Fourth Anfal operation. Those in the north, who had fewer escape routes, were heavily attacked, and a large number were Anfal-ed (disappeared). About 1680 people in the villages of Kelsa, Bogd, Kani Nabi, Qazlu, Kani Henjir, and Guma Shin went missing, and hundreds more in the villages of Galnqaj, Gerkhbar, Jalamurd, Qasruk, and Qamisha met the same fate.
According to report number 8280, dated May 6, 1988, sent by the commander of the First Corps to the army operations, the report states that some people surrendered near Taqtaq, including 60 men, 129 women, and 396 children. (In addition to 37 saboteurs, meaning Peshmerga.)
The army confiscated all valuable belongings from the people, plundered their wealth, and burned their houses. One of the Jashs (collaborators with the regime) protested, and an army officer angrily told him that they were taking the people to be killed. They can not take anything with them because the law says they must be destroyed. After brutally destroying the villages in the Taqtaq eastern region and massacring many of its inhabitants, the army moved towards the villages of Nawshwan and 76 other villages that had been destroyed in October 1987, whose inhabitants had previously been forcibly relocated to the Daretu and Benslawa camps near Erbil.
Many of the villages in the Shwan area had not become liberated areas due to their geographical location and had also become shelters for deserting soldiers. The village of Deloy Nawshwan, which had 80 households and about 50 or 60 deserting soldiers who did not want to serve in the Ba’ath Party’s army, had already been destroyed twice by the Iraqi army and rebuilt by its inhabitants, first in 1963 and again in 1976. On May 5, 1988, the offensive for Anfal reached this village, and the 77th Special Forces and ground troops advanced, killing many in their homes. Twenty-eight people were also arrested and went missing in this attack. Fortunately, in Nawshwan, many people survived these attacks, for example, the villages of Palkaneh and Ilnjaq.
Military reports and documents mention 138 villages that were burned, destroyed, and cleansed during the Fourth Anfal. In addition to this devastation, thousands of women, children, elderly, and youth also disappeared and went missing. According to estimates, more than 2500 people in the Koya Plain and 3,000 in the Sheikh Bezini, Qlaseewka, and Nawshwan areas are missing. Like previous attacks, this offensive followed the policy of rounding up people. Several locations were turned into collection and segregation centers to separate women, men, and children from each other and transport them to unknown places, including the Topzawa military base and Nograsalman Fortress, with more than three centers prepared for this operation. The detainees, prisoners from Gomshin and other villages, were held for three days in Hermote near Koya.
Survivors of the chemical attack on May 3 in the villages of Goptapa and Asker were transferred to the Tekye complex near Chamchamal, which was their first stop. They were transported in a military bus. In the Taqtaq area, a significant center transferred about 10,000 people from north Little Zab Valley, and eyewitnesses reported that innocent people were sent to Amriye Koya, a military fortress, like many other military bases. The detainees were from over 12 villages on both sides of the river. The next day, men and women were separated and transferred to an unknown location.
Another gathering place was the stable, where hundreds were collected of detainees, and due to the small number of soldiers, they couldn’t separate men and women. During the Fourth Anfal operation, many were sent to the Topzawa military base in Kirkuk, and their fate is still unknown. They were sent to the burning desert in Southern Iraq and Nugra Salman Fortress, where they were buried alive or sent to a unit for the slaughter of humans established by the regime’s biological and chemical weapons testing unit. It is worth mentioning that several civilians and Peshmerga were arrested, thrown from helicopters, and killed. The village of Jalamurd was also in this area, where more than 485 people were killed or went missing, and about 100 of them died under torture in Ngrasalman Fortress.
In these widespread attacks, administrative units of Kirkuk, Shwan, Aghjalar, Perdeh, Taq Taq, Chamchamal, Tekye, Khalkan, Dukan, Digala, Raider, Sordash, and Koya were captured. In total, 150 villages were destroyed, and their people were arrested, massacred, and went missing.
These extensive raids, in addition to the loss of life and disappearance of thousands, also caused significant material damage as all the people’s belongings were looted, justified by the regime’s chauvinistic mentality.
The names of the Jash, advisors, and brigades have been recorded in documents and newspapers. They defined their stories of victories, got awards for their betrayal of their people and nation, and received bravery medals.
The battalion Jash and their respective units during the Anfal campaign are listed as follows:
- Qadri Ahmad Mohammad Zibari – Battalion No. 1
- Ibrahim Ali Haji Malou Mazouri – Battalion No. 20
- Asif Ahmad Aqa Zibari – Battalion No. 23
- Tarq Fayiq Qadimi Kaki Zangari – Battalion No. 37
- Mamand Hamd Mouloud Girdi – Battalion No. 51
- Kamil Hadi Shei Khonouri Barzanji (Sulaimani) – Battalion No. 55
- Fouad Karim Mohammad Kabayiz Hamundi – Battalion No. 72
- Rashid Ahmad Amin Aziz Shorwani – Battalion No. 78
- Jalal Reza Assad Charmoqai – Battalion No. 79
- Mohammad Omar Amin Jamil Basaki – Battalion No. 81
- Fares Taher Mustafa Aqa Koyi – Battalion No. 85
- Othman Omar Mam Yahya Koyi – Battalion No. 86
- Salim Mamand Rasul Aqa Mirawdali – Battalion No. 98
- Taher Ali Abdulrahman Jabari – Battalion No. 99
- Mohammad Taher Younis Mohammad Zenoa Shkak – Battalion No. 107
- Ako Abbas Bayaz Mamand Aqa Sarkapkan – Battalion No. 132
- Omar Ahmad Ali Jaff (Omar Bachkol) – Battalion No. 171
- Tahsin Shwais Saeed Rojbiani – Battalion No. 172
- Hussein Mahd Osman Peshdari – Battalion No. 175
- Latif Mohammad Amin Qadir Jaff Zargozi – Battalion No. 195
- Mohammad Hamza Mohammad Zhazhlai – Battalion No. 204
- Mirza Ismail Sharif Reza (Mirza Koyi) – Battalion No. 207
- Reza Tah Muhayuddin Barzanji (Sagaw) – Battalion No. 211
- Adnan Abdullah Najm Jaff (Disco Adnan) – Battalion No. 212
- Qasim Karim Ahmad Mahmoud Shinki – Battalion No. 237
- Saber Ahmad Amin – Battalion No. 248
- Mohammad Abdul Karim Qadir Barzanji – Battalion No. 257
- Ahmad Sofi Ismail Saleh – Battalion No. 356
- Saber Raqeeb Surchi – Battalion No. 2
- Mohammad Qadir Aziz Aqa Surchi – Battalion No. 19
- Sheikh Mutasim Abdul Karim Barzanji – Battalion No. 64
- Saeed Mahmoud Bariki – Battalion No. 73
- Burhan Mohammad Mustafa Shawani – Battalion No. 92
- Omar Hama Ali Rostam Charmoqai – Battalion No. 104
- Aziz Hamd Mouloud (Mullah Ozer) – Battalion No. 130
- Sheikh Jalal Sheikh Najmuddin Sheikh Karim Salayi – Battalion No. 135
- Sheikh Mahmoud Si Gul Karzai – Battalion No. 137
- Homer Ahmad Aqa Peshdari – Battalion No. 140
- Zahir Taher Tawfiq Koyi – Battalion No. 150
- Salahuddin Khadr Rasul Naqshbandi – Battalion No. 241
- Adnan Abdullah Jabari (Sayed Adnan Jabari) – Battalion No. 321
- Medhat Tawfiq Mansour Dawoudi – Faji No. 47
- Ronak Ibrahim Medhat Dawoudi (Sheikh Ronak) – Battalion No. 138
- Tahsin Mohammad Rashid Zangana – Battalion No. 179
- Haseeb Mohammad Najm – Unknown Number
- Mohammad Hama Rahim – Unknown Number
The chiefs of the special intelligence units of Jash :
- Yousef Fathallah – Special Unit Number
- Jihad Musa Qarnajiri
- Khairallah Karim Mouloud (Khairallah Dozi)
- Abdullah Kaka Man Saleh (Aba Kirkuk)
- Haji Ali Nabiwa
- Mohammad Hussein Nouri
- Mohammad Kavani
References:
Ba’ath Regime Documents
Magazines and Newspapers of the Ba’ath Regime