Cihan University – Duhok and Cihan University – Erbil commemorate the anniversary of the 1988 chemical attack on Halabja, at about 11 o’clock on the morning of 16 March 1988, after two days of conventional bombing by the Iraqi army from nearby hills, airplanes belonging to Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi air force began bombing the city of Halabja. For several hours, the planes carried out successive sorties dropping, not only incendiaries, but chemical weapons including mustard gas, cyanide and sarin, on the vulnerable city below. At least 5,000 people died as an immediate result of the chemical attack on Halabja, three quarters of the victims were women and children, and a further 7,000 people were injured, or suffered long term illness. The Halabja attack has been recognized as a distinct event of the Anfal Genocide conducted against the Kurdish people by the Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein.