Tehran Denounces Iraqi Chemical Weapons Use

Backed by tanks and airplanes, Iraqi troops pushed about 60 kilometers inside Iranian territory. Several thousand Iranian soldiers were captured. Then almost immediately, the Iraqis surprisingly withdrew from Iranian territory.Tehran media reported that the Iraqi army had used chemical weapons in the attack. In a statement read on Tehran radio on Saturday, Ayatollah Khomeini denounced the chemical bombings of Halabja.Earlier, in March, Iraq allegedly killed several thousand people when it used mustard gas in an attack at Halabja, a Kurdish city located in an Iranian-held section of Iraq. Nerve agents (Sarin, Tabun and VX) were also used in the attack. A blood agent may also have been used. (Human Rights Watch has since qualified the attack as an act of genocide.) Read full story